Operation: Firestorm
by Jason de L'Epee
Summary: Loose adapt of Sonic Heroes. Rouge finds Shadow deep in Eggman's base, guarded by E-123 Omega. Sonic and Tails receive a daring letter from Eggman. Knuckles and the Chaotix are out searching for items requested by a mysterious Client...
1. Prelude and Chapter 1: The Message

**OPERATION: FIRESTORM**_  
by Jason de L'Épée_

FOREWARD: This is Phase 2 of my _Sonic Heroes _adapt, for I had no clue that my old intention of following the story line of the original game would down right suck. I will keep some of the original ideas that I had, but some I'll throw out all together.

Email me at if you have questions about the fic. I'll give you a few pointers:

1.) Metal-Sonic is on a private quest for making his metal shell and chassis more organic-like so he could become superior to his nemesis, Sonic the Hedgehog. He's made some progress and a few years before the events of this fic, acquired a bio-nanite brain which is like an organic brain but made up of cell-sized robots called nanites. He also acquired an ability through devious means to control Chaos energy.

2.) Sonic at about the same time received a way to become Hyper Sonic through a Super-Emerald belt that Knuckles made. It was easier for Sonic to go Hyper then to hunt down all the Chaos Emeralds to go Super. Hyper mode also had its advantages.

3.) The Chaotix personalities are slightly altered in here. Charmy is 14 instead of the 6 (bow to me, SEGA) but still has a little bit of a kid-like personality. Mighty the Armadillo is also in here, for a lot of people missed him in _Sonic Heroes_.

4.) All of the levels are out of order of the game play, for it was way too restricting as I found out. For instance, the Chaotix will come to Rail Canyon quite a bit earlier then everyone else.

5.) There is a self-insert in here. See if you can guess who it is...

This is a brave attempt to write a loose-adaptation of a game, and I hope I do fine.

**Prelude**  
--

A figure stalked down a dark hallway, footsteps with a tap, tap, tap. She kept to the darkest places, and always looked back and forth, whipping out a gadget from a pocket, and with it she waved it around, a small beeping sound emitting from it.

The figure was a white bat, dressed in a tight, dark-purple suit. She wore a belt that had a heart-shaped buckle and two holsters with two handguns.

"So far, so good," she breathed, and then lifted her wrist to her mouth and pressed a few buttons with her fingers. "This is Rouge reporting. So far I have no information on the new secret weapon that Dr. Robotnik had boasted about. I have infiltrated the secret base deep within the Mystic Ruins. I will give a more detailed report when I find it. Out."

Rouge had been sent on this mission by the agency when the President of the human colonies received a message from Robotnik boasting about a secret weapon that he had developed and will use it on Möbius at the end of the week. They had received the message on Monday. Rouge guessed that Eggman (the nickname that many people gave him) would use the weapon either on Friday or Saturday. She didn't have to study much to find the base for it was fairly-well-known that Eggman had a base in Mystic Ruins that was there for over four years.

Suddenly, she heard metallic footsteps coming down the hall, followed by someone speaking, voice with a robotic overtone. She immediately flew up into the bars and crossbeams of the tunnel ceiling.

Two crimson eyes shone out in the darkness of the hallway, coming closer slowly. Rouge watched the two eyes float by, not making a sound for fear of being detected. For someone who hides from someone dangerous, time seems to crawl, but Rouge was patient, and it paid off. She waited until the footsteps had disappeared completely before she dropped down.

She knew that robot; she had met it on ARK, and it was wise to keep herself undetected from it, for it was Metal-Sonic, a cold killer who did not enjoy being crossed. And if he was, the one who did cross him would be torn apart.

She quickly advanced down the hall, which in the end, came to a vertical shaft with bars to climb either up or down. She thought that going down those bars would cause some racket, so she dove down into the dark chasm, and when she knew that she would be soon hit the bottom, she fanned out her wings to soften her fall and then landed on her feet in front of a large door, illuminated by a bright fluorescent light above.

"Hmm, this door looks tough enough to hide a weapon. I'll check it out."

The door was locked with a digital lock that needed a code that Rouge had no knowledge of, but she was not a government spy for no reason. She placed a small gadget on the door, which then started beeping. It was a digital "lock-pick," which studied the lock's internal matrix for the right code needed to unlock it. When its quick beeps became one long shrill ring, it will have unlocked the door.

It took a good few minutes, but was successful. The doors slid open with a hydraulic hiss, and she peered into the room. It was dark, except for a computer console several paces ahead and a large pod glowing a sick green.

"It looks like some chamber, but is it _the _chamber?"

She strode forward, waving the sensor about for any security devices. There were none, but there were some readings of something that was on sleep mode. That made Rouge a little uneasy, but she was not deterred. As she stepped towards the console, she was amazed at the technology that was in this computer.

"Where does the doctor get his supplies for things like this?"

It was when she actually got to the console when things began to change drastically. One was that the computer suddenly awoke, for Rouge stepped on a pressure pad that activated the console. Another was that two red eyes peered through the darkness towards Rouge; round, solid ones, not like Metal-Sonic's ovalish, crescent-like ones.

The computer spoke in a deep, male voice, "Greetings, what option will you choose for insulation pod number 24 specimen?"

"Specimen? What could be in there?" Rouge gazed at the screen which had several options, such as "release" and "scan" and "stimulate tests." She chose "release," and she noticed that greenish liquid was draining away from inside the pod. The lid slid open, and a rank smell that caused Rouge to recoil spread through the room as if a skunk suddenly strolled through the room.

As soon as the smell was at a level that Rouge could at least tolerate enough to look at the pod, and when she saw the specimen, she nearly shouted in pure surprise!

It was a burly black hedgehog, spines twisted about with red highlights which also ran down both arms and legs and the sides of the eyes. The only other marking was a diamond-shaped marking of fur that sat on his chest. He wore gloves with golden wristlets accompanied by red buckles above. The shoes were bulky, and had large groves on the sole. Just like the wristlets, the same thing sat on his ankles. He bore a glare that could incinerate anyone who was unfortunate to attract it. It was Shadow...the Hedgehog.

Shadow stumbled forwards and onto the floor, vomiting up the greenish liquid, sides contracting with each cough. He slumped onto all fours, spitting out the bad taste with a face of utter revulsion. He looked up and stood up, bracing himself against the pod, for his knees were shaking from the stress of regurgitation.

He spoke, voice raspy and dry as a broken vacuum cleaner, "Where...am I?"

Rouge stepped back in fear, and she had a good reason to; she hadn't seen Shadow since that day in ARK. "Shadow?"

Shadow looked at Rouge. "Rouge?"

Suddenly, the silence amid them exploded with a repeating bang of a machine gun. Shadow nearly jumped, and suddenly dove into Rouge, so as to hide her behind the computer console and out of the gunfire, just in time too for the capsule was hit hard and exploded just seconds after Shadow's feet left it.

"Stay down, and don't move. I'll take care of it." Shadow then was gone in a whoosh and fire of his hover-skates.

Rouge peeked up over the console, and saw that a large, red-and-black robot with huge arms was firing bullets at Shadow, who was darting to and fro among support pillars avoiding the fire. The fire eyes of the robot were alit with such brightness so that they were no longer red.

Rouge figured that this was the "sleeping machine" that she had detected earlier and thought nothing of. She nearly lost her life from it; be more careful next time.

"Must annihilate Dr. Robotnik's robots!" It droned loudly over and over, pausing with different lengths of time between each statement.

Rouge was a little surprised at this statement; one of the doctor's robots _wanting _to destroy other robots?

She watched Shadow duck behind the charred stump of what used to be the capsule, and she saw the glance that Shadow always had before he thrashed anyone.

Shadow leapt out of hiding and charged at the robot with such a force that could blast a safe door off its hinges. The robot kept shooting at Shadow as he charged.

"STOP!!" Rouge screamed and leapt in between Shadow and the robot, with a gun towards Shadow, and a portable EMP generator at the robot.

Shadow stopped inches away from the muzzle, glaring at Rouge, and the robot stood dead still.

"What are you doing!?" Shadow hissed. "He was designed to destroy us!"

"Didn't you hear what he kept saying!?" Rouge yelled at the black hedgehog. "He thought you were one of the doctor's robots!"

The robot spoke. "Thought!? I know he's a robot from Robotnik! All of his creations must be destroyed!"

"Who are you, and why blast Shadow instead of me?" Rouge glared sharply at the robot.

"I am E-123 Omega, the ultimate and the last of the E-series robots." The robot, or Omega rather, stood up, and Rouge noticed that he was at least eight feet tall. "I'm attempting to destroy him as all robots."

"I'm not a robot! I'm a hedgehog!" Shadow said, teeth bared in distrust at Omega.

"Then why were you in that pod? That is a conditioning pod for repairing robots."

For once in his life since ARK, Shadow seemed a loss for words. "I...I don't know. I don't remember anything." He turned away from Rouge and Omega, back towards them and arms crossed.

Rouge never saw Shadow like this at all, but she turned to Omega, thinking about Shadow. "Omega, why are you trying to destroy Robotnik's robots?"

Omega began from the beginning. He was made the last of the E-series of twenty-two, but was never commissioned. He lay in storage for five years, and was activated by Metal-Sonic a few weeks ago, but not as an attack robot, but as a common sentry playing guard. Anger festered deep inside the metal flesh of Omega, and he blew when Shadow was released, mistaking him for a robot.

"Now I get it:" Rouge said, deducing the entire situation. "You're angry at Dr. Robotnik, because he neglected you for five years."

"Affirmative. Revenge is the natural response...and the appropriate."

"And Shadow, you can't remember ARK, or any of what happened, do you?"

Shadow did not move; Rouge peered around, and saw that his eyes were distant, thinking deeply. She took that as "yes."

Rouge took in the whole situation: a robot with a personal vendetta against Robotnik, Shadow dealing with amnesia and she on a mission to find the super-weapon. Then she had an idea: Shadow was dangerous when he was brooding in thought like now, and having a robot that large would make a great asset for protection.

"Well, I say that settles it." Rouge holstered her gun, and pocketed her EMP.

"Clarification is desired," Omega said, looking a hair confused. "Please explain."

"My name is Rouge the Bat, and I am looking for a secret super-weapon that Robotnik had boasted to us about. You are looking for revenge, so you can come with me. It is likely that we'll run into some robots on the way."

Omega's eyes lit up in delight. "Affirmative. I will accompany you...on one condition: when we find Dr. Robotnik, I will take him out. No questions."

Rouge thought about it. She needed the protection likely, considering that Metal-Sonic was prowling the base and would likely be around a lot as she got closer to the hidden location of the weapon, and besides, it would be easier on all Möbius if Robotnik was gone.

"It's a deal." Rouge then turned to Shadow, who had not moved at all. "Shadow, will you come with us?"

Shadow said nothing, for he was deep in thought. If he went with Rouge and Omega, he could probably find something that would remind him of his past. He had regained his past before; why must he lose it again?

"Shadow?"

Shadow then turned to Rouge, eyes blank and drawn.

"Will you come with us?"

Shadow sighed despairingly, and nodded.

"It's settled. Now there's only one thing more: how to get out without running into any sentries?"

"You haven't thought of that?" Shadow said, a hair angry. "You should've thought _before_ you came here." He crossed his arms.

"I could blast our way out of here. I contain rocket launchers within my fore-arms."

"I'm hoping for something more subtle, Omega," Rouge said, but then she remembered something. She reached into a bag that she kept tucked between her wings for spare tools. This spare tool in particular was a large purple gem that gave the room a slight royal violet light. She then shoved it into Shadow's hand.

"Here, take this."

Shadow stared at it. "What do you expect me to do with it?"

"Have you really forgotten everything? Remember how you rescued me from the underground safe on Prison Island? Or ARK after killing the Biolizard?"

Shadow's eyes grew afire, and then grabbed Rouge's arms fiercely. "Don't breathe that name again! That thing was never to be made, for Professor Gerald was insane to create such a beast."

"So you do remember ARK...and...well...her too, do you?"

Shadow let go of Rouge's arms, and his own slumped against his side. "I remember. I swore I'd never forget her, Rouge. The doctor will pay for trying..." His hands clenched into fists, except the one with the Emerald.

Rouge held Shadow's hand then took Omega's metal hand. She nodded to Shadow.

Shadow held the Emerald high, and concentrated deeply. "Chaos Control!"

The three vanished with a flash of purplish light.

**Chapter 1: The Message**  
--

"Score!"

Sonic the Hedgehog was having the time of his life within a theme park themed after casinos called Casino Park. He was at the slot machines and seemed to be engrossed by them. He had pulled the lever, and a stream of silver coins came out, causing the shout.

"Woo! I'll make millions yet! Hand me another quarter, Dash!"

Dash, a blue, Sonic-chao, handed up another coin, and groaned. "Can we do something else now?"

"Yeah...in a minute."

"You said that last time!"

"What's with the shouting, Sonic?" a voice came from behind.

The speaker was a thirteen-year-old, two-tailed fox, who was walking towards Sonic with a cup full of soda pop in one hand. A pearly-white chao and horns that looked like Nights', and had purplish wings and knot above its head, and its name was Frosty.

"Oh, hi Tails, Frosty." He waved to the two. "I just made big bucks here!"

Tails looked at the modest pile of silver coins at Sonic's feet. "Ten bucks hardly means big bucks, Sonic."

"It's a start!" Sonic scooped up the coins with his gloved hands. "Where were you two now?"

"We went on the Bingo Highway Circuit!" Frosty said. "It was fun!"

"I wrecked my cart into a giant bumper which sent me flying. I nearly got sick."

"That's why it was fun!"

Sonic chuckled. "That's my kind of chao."

"Hey! I thought I was you chao!" Dash protested.

"You are, but Frosty showing potential." Sonic laughed.

"And she was supposed to be mine," Tails mumbled.

Sonic's cell-phone suddenly chirped attached to his belt (which if you remember is invisible so that it appeared at the cell-phone seemed to be floating just off his side) and he picked it up.

Gazing at the caller ID, he said while flipping the lid open, "Hey, it's Sal, back in Knothole! Wonder what she wants?" He put the phone to his face. "Yeah, Sal? What's the matter? Antoine's cooking finally getting to you?"

There was a half-refrained chuckle on the other side, but it soon sobered to seriousness. "Sonic? I got a rather surprising email from our mutual friend, Dr. Robotnik."

"Eggman sending us an email...?"

Tails now seemed curious, so Frosty and Dash were as well.

"Imagine my surprise."

"...He didn't send us a virus or anything, did he?"

"No; N.I.C.O.L.E. scanned the whole email over and over again for worms, viruses and the like. Nothing, so I opened it." Sally fell silent.

Sonic began to prod. "Yes?"

"I think you should see it for yourself. I'll send it to the Cyclone computer. Call me if you find anything."

Sally hung up, leaving Sonic rather puzzled.

"What's the matter, Sonic?" Tails asked, his curiosity nibbling at his mind.

"We got to get to the Cyclone. Let's go, kiddo!"

- - - - -

On the Floating Island, where an ancient city of the Guardians once stood now lay a vast city of modern architecture, with a population of over fifty thousand. In the business district stood a rental building, where small businesses could start and take root. The landlord was rather strict about having the rent ready when demanded each month. On the second floor was a business which was formed earlier in the year. It was christened "Chaotix Detectives Inc." and a motto below that read "Where we snoop, we help you!"

Despite the shoddy condition of the place (and the motto for that matter), here the Chaotix had set up business and having a business did not change their attitudes, wanting rather to have fun.

As you may know, the Chaotix was the collective name invented which represented the four members: Vector the Crocodile, Mighty the Armadillo, Espio the Chameleon and Charmy the Bee.

They had only one major case, and that was the events dealing with the foul creature in the Mystic Ruin Jungles, but that was three months ago; the Chaotix had used the payment from that case to update the equipment, pay the rent, and kept some for emergency funds.

On this day in September, Vector was leaning back against the wall in his chair, feet on the desk (which really was an old altar from an old parish in the human colonies. The drawers, where they kept the files, was in a small file cabinet beside the "desk."), head-beating to music that was playing in his ever-present walkman. The inflow of cash was very slow due to complete lack of real cases, and the only way that they could make money was to help the police part time, and have rather small cases like finding a missing pet or something like that. Due to this economic atmosphere, things were very slow.

Mighty was passing the time weightlifting in an adjacent room in their four-room business, being very strong, but very bored.

Espio was meditating on a cushion in the corner of another room, out of earshot of the constantly beating of the bass in Vector's headphones. His tail was wrapped about his torso and his hands were folded in front of him. He was stock still and silent, save for the steady breathing he gave. His eyes were closed and his legs were crossed. He was in fact, a martial artist, or if you are into cheesy cartoons, a ninja.

The missing one, Charmy, was gone from the office. It was his turn to get the mail you see, which was at the front desk where the "tyrant of a landlord" (which many residents there called him behind his back), if you will, had his throne.

The atmosphere that I had described just a moment ago was going on without any interruption, when suddenly the doors burst open and Charmy flew in with an armful of mail.

"Mail time!"

Vector's chair slid out from underneath him and he fell backwards with a cry. "Whoa!" This was followed by lots of crashing when he toppled onto the trashcan and file cabinet.

Mighty ran into the other room, naturally having heard the noise and checking on what's up. Espio was the last, not really enjoying being interrupted from his meditation. "What's all the racket in here about?"

Vector had climbed up into a seating position, and seemed a little irked. "What's wrong with you, Charmy? Trying to kill someone?"

"I just got the mail," Charmy protested.

"...and nearly frightened me half to death! Where's that dang mail?"

Charmy handed Vector a pile of mail and Vector ran through it, handing out random ones to the other Chaotix members.

He kept muttering what each envelope bore robotically as if disinterested. "Bill...bill...magazine subscription for Mighty...bill...junk mail...bill...we sure are getting lots of bills...bill...newspaper...what's this?"

The last mail item was a manila package that was the size of a radio. As a matter of fact, that was nearly what was inside of it. When Vector tore open the package, a communicator, which looked like a colorful walkie-talkie, slid out. It seemed to have only one frequency, even if it had more, it was stuck to one. Nothing looked really special about this communicator, despite its odd coloring: dominantly red with yellow dial and speaker.

"Who the heck sent us this?" Espio asked, a little bewildered about this odd mail item.

Charmy snatched up the manila shreds of the package and skimmed over it quickly. "It doesn't have a return address, and the stamp doesn't seem to show any significance."

"Well, we can just open the frequency and see who's on the other end," Mighty suggested.

Vector shrugged and pressed the call-in button. A voice, which was obviously was distorted by some synthesizer, spoke through the speaker. "Who is this?"

Vector hesitated for half a second. "Vector the Crocodile."

"Are you one of the Chaotix?"

"Yes."

"Good; I'm in need of your services, and require your detective skills. I've heard of your case in the Mystic Ruins and am interested in your incorporation. I can pay very handsomely."

Now every ear was attentive. Vector said in a low voice, "How much did you have in mind."

"Fifty thousand total."

"FIFTY THOUS--!!" Charmy blurted out in complete surprise and shock, but was quickly hushed into silence by the three others.

"Yes, impressive isn't it?"

"What do we have to do?"

"I need you to collect materials that I need."

"You're a private collector?"

"In a way, yes. When you get me five needed materials by the end of the week, I will reward you. It is adamant that you get those materials to me before the end of the week."

"What is your name?"

"Uh...I prefer a certain amount of anonymity."

Vector found that odd, but there was fifty grand on the line. He looked at the rest of the Chaotix, and they seemed to get the question in Vector's eyes. They nodded and Vector spoke again. "We accept."

"Excellent. First, you must go to Santiago City and Casino Park, the amusement park. There you must talk to the head person there, Mr. Kodiak. But before that, you must find ten black poker chips around the park. These are rare and collectable, so don't try winning them at poker tables, and don't even attempt to fake them too; he checks them personally closely. I'll contact him so he knows you're coming. Be quick, for time will travel fast."

"Yes, sir!"

The communicator made a click so it sounded like that the Client on the other side had clicked his communicator off.

Espio voiced his concern. "I may have agreed to this, but why do I still have a bad feeling about this?"

"Espio, don't be ridiculous. Remember our policy: we never turn down any work that pays."

Mighty had dug out an atlas and looked up Santiago City, for he had heard of it but never been there. "Here it is!" Mighty pointed to a large yellow section, crisscrossed with roads, located off the edge of Sapphire Bay. "Santiago City. It's the larger of the two cities there."

"Whoa, that's kind of far from here," Charmy said.

"We may have to get one of the portable teleporters that Knuckles has. I'm sure he'll let us borrow one," Vector stated.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Espio said.

"All right, all right. Hold your horses." Vector said. "We need to talk to Knuckles about a teleporter, that's for sure. First, let's get some money and some food to take with us. Don't forget our licenses either."

After a few minutes, they gathered some personal funds, food and their licenses. Then, they left from their office, after Vector put up an "out of town" sign in the window, and headed towards Knuckles' place out in the Marble Gardens.

- - - - -

Back in Knothole, some time after Sally had sent a previously-mentioned message, a little rabbit was playing near a brook with her blue chao. The rabbit was Cream, and the chao, Cheese. Cream was still a little girl who was ten, but already had an adventure already, but I won't go into detail about.

The only thing that ever happened that day so far was the email from "Dr. Eggman" (which Cream got into a habit of calling Robotnik) and nothing else. She never gave it much thought, for she never really understood why Dr. Eggman was so bad.

Cheese jumped into the brook and splashed about, sometimes splashing Cream accidentally.

"Hey, Cheese! Stop that!"

"Sorry, Creamy."

The sound of the word Creamy coming from a chao sound silly and Cream couldn't help giggling to that sound.

Suddenly, she heard someone shouting around back in the village.

"Is anyone here?"

Cream decided to get up and find out who it was; she was quickly followed by Cheese. When they had gotten there, they found a pink hedgehog who was older then Cream and wore a red dress, hair-ribbon and boots.

"Hello," said Cream. "Oh, hi Amy! How have you been! I haven't seen you since those bad robot-like things that came from space."

Amy was good friends with Cream ever since the ARK incident. "Hi, Cream!" They hugged. "How've you been."

"Bored."

Amy giggled a little bit, petting Cheese the Chao. "Hey, is Sonic here?"

"No. Mr. Sonic isn't here. He went on vacation, I think."

Amy looked a hair crestfallen, but shook it off. "Oh, well. I guess I can find him some other time. I just wanted to visit before I go back to school."

"School? You go to school? Cool!" Cream asked.

"I guess; nothing exciting though."

"Oh..."

"Who's out there?" someone called out from inside the central hut.

"It's Amy, Aunt Sally!"

Out stepped the feminine figure of Sally. She had known Amy when they met after the Little Planet escapade and the even more recent ARK incident. "Hello, Amy."

"Hello, Princess Sally!" Amy said.

Sally felt a little embarrassed for she never had anyone call her Princess. "Please, Amy, call me Sally."

Amy turned red, or redder considering her pinkish color. "Sorry."

"It's okay really." Sally then changed the subject. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, school starts for us this Friday, so I asked my mother if I could come here to see Sonic before I have to start my classes again. I'll be heading back tomorrow."

"I'm sorry if Sonic wasn't here." Sally smiled inside. "He's in Santiago City with Tails."

"Cream told me that." Amy sighed. "Well, I guess I'll make sure my things are ready to go again."

"Oh, now?" Cream asked. "Why not stay here for a while?"

Amy smiled. "I have to go back home to get ready for school."

"No!" Then Cream got an idea, a simplistic idea if you know young kids enough. "Hey, why can't I come with you?"

"Come with me?" Amy was a little startled about this sudden idea from Cream's head. "But...but...what about your mother or father?"

"Oh, I'm an orphan, or at least, I don't know where they are." Cream seemed to get down in spirit briefly.

"Then who takes care of you? I swear that you're not a teen yet."

"Aunt Sally does. Aunt Sally, can I go, please?" Cream bore a look like an adorable puppy.

"Hmm, well..."

Cheese now got into Cream's antics, and gave a mirrored look. The chipmunk couldn't resist. "Oh, I suppose. I guess you need to get out of the woods for a while. I'll have Sonic come by Sapphire City and pick you up when his furlough is up. Just be careful."

Cream squealed in delight. Amy wondered if she'd enjoy Cream's company, but she decided that if Sonic put up with her enough, she could with her.

- - - - -

Sonic and Tails had gotten back out to the Cyclone which was in car mode and ready to roll. Frosty was playing with the White Chaos Emerald (it was her favorite) that Tails owned in the back seat, while Sonic and Tails was looking on a computer screen in the front. Sonic and Tails had opened the message and were reading it over.

It read so:

"Hello, Sonic, my noble adversary...

I have finally got a plan to overthrow the entire world! I will commence it at the end of this week. Think you can stop me?

Ha ha, Dr. Eggman."

Tails showed slight shock and confusion, and Sonic showed slight amusement.

"It looks a bit like an invitation to party," Sonic said, chuckling slightly. "Noble adversary?"

"Why would Eggman send us a letter like that?"

"Come to think of it, why would he even use his nickname, the one he hates all the time?"

"'The end of the week...' What's today?"

Sonic paused for a moment. "Tuesday."

"That gives us three to four days!" Tails said, alarmed.

"Calm down, kid. We only had twenty-four hours to destroy the Eclipse Cannon three years ago. We'll get Eggman yet."

"But where do we even start?"

"Ow!" Frosty had been tossing the Emerald up into the air and it landed on her head. She cried out, more in surprise then pain. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Sonic and Tails couldn't help laughing a bit.

Sonic sat down to think, after he laughed his share at Frosty's little play. "Well..." Sonic snapped his fingers. "Hey, we got that by email, did we?"

"Yeah?"

"Let's call back Sally and have N.I.C.O.L.E. trace the email back and find out where!"

"Hey, that should work!"

"I'll call her up!" Sonic picked up his cell-phone and started punching in numbers.

As Sonic was talking to Sally, explaining the plan, Frosty was pressing the sore on her head into numbness. Dash was stroking the Blue Emerald that was kept in the Cyclone for safekeeping. He was learning different frequencies in this Emerald, and it was getting a little frustrating. He learned the Chaos Control, at least, the teleportation half, but the time control part was hard. He saw that Sonic was able to use the yellow one to freeze time very well, but why not the blue one?

"She's tracing..." Sonic announced.

Tails was drumming his fingers impatiently, Frosty gripped the White Emerald, waiting. Dash wasn't paying attention; he was studying the Emerald deeply. Sonic did some strange stuff with this Emerald, like the little incident before Perfect Chaos with his zoning out, sometime before his own transformation-evolution.

"Got it!" Sonic exclaimed. "Thanks a bunch, Sal! Could you email it to the Cyclone? Thanks! Bye!" Sonic made a little kiss sound before the phone hang up, and both Frosty and Dash looked disgusted.

"Here it is!" Tails said. "Server EG-4312...somewhere in Central Möbius." Tails was trying to get coordinates. "It's in the Eastern Part of the Dagro Desert."

"Going to the desert again, eh?" Sonic remarked. "I never thought Eggman to be the sidewinder..."

"What's a sidewinder?" Frosty asked, inquisitive.

"It's some kind of snake, a rattler. They crawl to their sides instead of forwards like most snakes."

Frosty looked utterly confused. "Eggman's a snake? I thought snakes didn't have arms!"

Sonic and Tails stifled a titter of laughter, but couldn't hide their smiles from reacting to Frosty's ignorance. Dash was too preoccupied to notice Frosty's ignorance.

"When should we go?"

"Let's go now; that way, we can beat down Eggman and still run back here and gamble away our life savings!" Sonic said confidently.

"Oh, I hope not..." Dash mumbled, who had been half-listening to Sonic.

"Frosty, Dash and I will take the Cyclone," Tails said. "Here, you'll need the Chaos Emerald." Tails handed Sonic the Blue Emerald.

"Thanks, I'll keep up on the ground. We'll crack Eggman wide open. C'mon, let's party!"

Sonic took off down the street, nearly mowing down two pedestrians. Tails put the Cyclone into a run, and when he thought he was fast enough, he made the Cyclone transform into the Tornado, and took off after Sonic.

Nearby, in an alley full of dumpsters; two hedgehogs, one black and one blue, stepped out into the sunlight.

The blue one was actually a robot, with red eyes, blue spines with silver highlights, large forearms and legs, striped with silver patterns which seemed to line muscles, and wore a belt from where a black cape flew out to the back. It was Metal-Sonic, wearing battle gear.

The black one was half-organic and half-robot. He looked just as imposing as Metal-Sonic standing beside him. His jet-black fur seemed to suck in the light around him. He had part of his right eye robotized and most of his left arm. He carried a pretty sour expression, which could suck out joy from anyone's face. He wore a red vest with sharp shoulders and had a belt with a buckle that had the skull of a bull on it. He wore sharp red boots that had metal tips and claws on the heels. He was Echelon.

"They took the bait..." Metal-Sonic droned.

"Excellent. Time to test out your new ability, Mecha. You've been trained well, my apprentice. You have what you need to destroy that hedgehog and anyone in your way, better than that human you served, Robotnik."

Metal-Sonic face wrinkled up in disgust. He now bore a flesh that had biological properties, such as flexibility. It also came with facial expressions, which was so much more exhilarating to him for he knew that one of the best ways to threaten a victim was through the proper facial expressions.

"If we lived in the age of the Trials, you would be ready, but unfortunately, we do not. You'll have to learn from experience, Mecha. I'll watch you, but you'll receive no more counsel from me...unless you're in dire need."

"Yes, master..."

"Farewell, Mecha..." Echelon smiled grimly, and then he vanished in a twinkle of light.

"I intend to succeed, and first, I will be rid of that cursed hedgehog..." Metal-Sonic crossed his arms, and he also vanished in a twinkle of light.


	2. Chapter 2: Hunts

**Chapter 2: Hunts**  
--

Several frogs were croaking in the swamps around. This was a rather peaceful countryside; swarms of birds settled into the brushes and rose again to fly off again. The crickets composed their consent doleful music, but despite their melancholy symphony that played eternally day after day, week after week, the marshes had a pleasant air floating around. Anyone who lived there would've found this atmosphere uplifting, quite contrary to the doleful atmosphere.

Suddenly, the air changed; something was coming. A purple glow formed over a marsh pond and it slowly expanded. Suddenly, three figures appeared out of thin air. One was a black hedgehog with red highlights along his spines. Another was a white bat wearing a purple tight-suit and wearing two handguns. The last one was the biggest: a large black-and-red robot with large eight-inch claws and red glowing eyes. It was our escapees from Dr. Robotnik's base: Shadow, Rouge and E-123 Omega.

Shadow doubled over when he fully materialized into the swamp air and began breathing hard.

"Shadow, are you all right?" Rouge automatically asked.

"Too...far..." Shadow gasped.

Shadow was still grasping the Purple Emerald, and with its electrical properties, the fur on his arm was standing straight up.

"Where...are...we?" Shadow gasped, lessening some.

"The Frog Forest; an offshoot of the Mystic Ruins Forest," Omega droned.

Rouge propped her arm under her chin in thought. Shadow shakily stood up and turned to Rouge.

"Here, take your Emerald back. If you want me to ever use the Chaos Control again, get me the green one. That purple one's no good." Shadow turned away, crossing his arms.

"Well, that's possible." Rouge whipped out a small gadget the size of a Palm Pilot. "I knew this would come into a good use."

Shadow's ear cocked in Rouge's direction. "What is it?"

"It's a chaos energy tracker. You didn't expect me to have Dr. Robotnik's energy tracker without studying it some, did you? I stole the technology built into it and had another one built. This thing can track an Emerald down within millimeters. It also has a satellite uplink so we can find any Emerald in Möbius."

Rouge typed a few buttons, and on the screen appeared a map of the West Part of Möbius, called West Möbius. Three blips showed up on the screen.

"Ah, we're in luck! The green one is in West Möbius, in the Northern Mountains."

"Too far to teleport." Shadow stated. "We'll have to go by normal means."

"Just a reminder: Dr. Robotnik plans to activate his prime operation to rule the world later this week."

"He is?" Shadow nearly jumped as he spun to face Omega. "When did you hear this?"

"Rouge described the operation to me shortly before we relocated to this location. Dr. Robotnik had bragged to all of the political figureheads of Möbius."

Shadow made a sound like he was disgusted. "Figures. He can't keep a secret, even for...for..." Shadow was concentrating.

"ARK?" Rouge finished.

"Yes...the ARK."

Shadow looked disappointed; Rouge was about to inquire, but decided against it. Shadow straightened up, as if he just realized something. "We must find that Chaos Emerald. And we have only a few days; we must go now. Hope you can keep up."

"Climb up on my back, Rouge. You can't keep up on your own, but I can. Our briskness is imperative."

Rouge climbed up onto Omega's shoulder and grabbed onto a bar that lay on the robot's shoulder. Shadow took off in a skate, and Omega fired up his jetpacks and took off after him. Omega wasn't as fast as Shadow, but Shadow was gracious enough to keep at a pace slow enough for Omega.

He began to think as he glided silently through the marshes, about everything. His memory wasn't gone, but it was fuzzy. He almost forgot the name of the space station, ARK, already, but thanks to Rouge, he was reminded. But why forget in the first place? He lived on the ARK longer then on Möbius; it should've been natural for him to have a harder time to remember Möbius, for he was only on it for a few years, and the ARK for all of the early part of his life...but forget the ARK? Something's wrong.

Shadow saw something bright up ahead and screeched to a halt. Omega came up a half-second later and also stopped. Rouge asked first. "Why the stop?"

Shadow quickly shushed her and was peering at what he saw just a second ago. They were in a marsh, and the trees were so thick above that the sunlight was not able to get through. Shadow opened his hand towards Rouge, and the bat instinctively handed Shadow the Chaos Emerald. Shadow didn't like the Purple Emerald, as earlier stated, but it didn't hurt to have some form of protection.

Shadow grasped the Emerald, and then stepped around a huge plant. What lay before him was strangest thing he ever laid eyes on. It was a huge frog, black with red and blue blotches. The frog was the size of a large retriever.

Ever since the ARK incident, he hated anything that bore a resemblance to that lizard thing he saw a few years earlier, he forgot the name already, reptiles and amphibians and such. That "creature" was his worst nightmare; anything that had a vague resemblance awoke that hatred and fear and made him want to blow it off the face of the earth. He felt like that now.

"What is it, Shadow?" Rouge whispered.

"Sensors detect an amphibian, approximate 10 meters ahead of Shadow. Species unidentified. Unknown specimen. The unknown can be potentially dangerous. Should I eradicate it?"

"Quiet, Omega. It could be just a harmless frog."

Unfortunately, it wasn't so harmless. The frog glanced at Shadow and felt his hatred. It was threatened and needed to protect himself. It opened its mouth and let out a croak that sounded shrill and crackly. The sky darkened and down poured rain. It smelled foul and clung to their fur and clothes.

"Danger! Danger!" Omega suddenly blurted out. "Acid rain alert! Acid rain alert!"

"Acid rain!?" Rouge blanched. "Under this tree, the one with the huge leaves!"

The three dove under the leaves to keep the rain from falling onto their bodies. Shadow shook himself, trying to get rid of the deadly rain off his fur. Rouge did the same, but cringed at the smell of the acid. Omega didn't need to clean off his metallic shell; the acid was too weak to eat away metal.

A little later, the rain stopped, just as quickly as it started.

"What was that?" Shadow asked.

"It was a rain-frog, I believe," Rouge said. "There are a few large frogs that for some strange reason can summon rain. I didn't think they would be anything like that."

"I knew I hated that frog when I laid eyes on it."

"C'mon, Shadow. We must wash off this acid, or we'll get acid burns."

A quick search brought up a marsh with a still pond. Shadow and Rouge quickly washed out their fur, while Omega stood watch. Rouge was embarrassed at the indignity of washing in a foul-smelling pond such as a marsh, being used to high-class bathing that she was bred for.

Shadow got his fur cleaned out first, and sat on the edge of the marsh, waiting. His fur still reeked of the acid, but it was just the smell. Still, it annoyed him and he hoped it would pass soon.

Rouge thought the same, for this was nothing like the 50-dollar-an-ounce perfumes she was used to.

E-123 Omega was looking around, as if searching for something invisible. Omega was feeling a resonance that he never felt before. It felt like there was a charge in the air. It made him uneasy. He considered inquiring Shadow and Rouge, but upon observance, they seemed not to sense it at all.

He had consulted his coordinates, but they were fuzzy; there was some strange magnetic interference in the air.

"Omega?" Rouge noticed the robot's scanning around. "What's wrong?"

"Sensors have picked up a strange magnetic resonance. Unable to identify. It is messing up my coordinate system. Having difficulty obtaining current location."

"So we're lost?"

"Currently. We must clear the electromagnetic disturbance to obtain the location."

Rouge crossed her arms and leaned back her head slightly, as if trying to feel something. She knew that some electromagnetic energy pulses can be felt by organics. Unfortunately, this was not one of those.

Shadow on the other hand DID feel something, and it gave him a strange sense of déjà vu. He had felt this strong feeling before...in some dark cavernous place...where...this creature was...a shiver ran down his spine. It felt oppressive there, but here...he didn't know.

Shadow was still holding the Purple Chaos Emerald, and started stroking it unconsciously. The air changed. Rouge didn't sense anything, but Omega looked around suddenly as if startled.

Clouds began forming above, and Shadow looked upwards at the gathering clouds, still stroking the Emerald. Soon, a rumble of thunder echoed through the trees. Rouge's ear flicked and she looked up and saw the storm clouds.

"Oh, not again!" Rouge dove under the plant. Omega was trying to make sense of the sudden pulse of the strange energy. Shadow remained still, just as the rain began to pour. It was a sweet rain, not like the putrid acid rain several minutes earlier.

"What are you doing, Shadow?" Rouge hissed, obviously seething and surprised at Shadow's unawareness. "That's acid rain!"

"Negative. This rain is the natural rain," Omega stated.

Rouge looked up, but was still unsure. Still, Shadow's fur wasn't eaten off yet, just slicked down. Just as before, the rain clouds dissipated and the air turned fair.

"Why does that always happen?" Rouge spoke everyone's thoughts.

"I can only conclude that the energy pulses are connected to the surprise storms."

Rouge couldn't comprehend Omega's conclusion, but since he sensed something that she couldn't, she couldn't argue.

Shadow seemed oblivious to what just happened. He stared in shock as his memory seemed to toss and turn as a stormy sea would. No...not again...

- - - - -

Deep in the Mystic Ruins, in the dark fortress of Final Egg, Metal-Sonic was viewing progress on a ship being built in a construction bay. Ever since his reformation, he was continually finding out new sensations that he never had as a "robot." He was still a robot technically, but by other technicalities, he was alive, the most life-like robot in all history.

His new bio-metal body had a respiration system, a circulatory system, a complex nervous system, and now had a skeletal frame, made of harder bio-metal, all the bio-nanites fused together tightly, instead of relatively loosely bonded comparing a bone to the intestinal tract.

Another thing that was new to him was toleration to Chaos energy, a sensation that robots would never feel. Chaos energy has electromagnetic properties which would cause severe interference to any electronic impulse, like placing a strong dipole magnet too close to a computer. Now they hardly harmed him at all. Speaking of which, he felt a rush of energy occur as he was inspecting one ship. It felt like a small vacuum which lasted for just a second, then dissipated as if it wasn't anything. He dismissed it as nothing, and got back to the inspection.

What he thought was lacking was that he was indeed still a copy. After years of updating his robot body, he was still a copy.

He fumed at the thought, his new body reflecting his anger, heating up slightly and his eyes narrowing into slits. He peered at his reflection in the viewing window, red eyes peering at red eyes. His spines extended back, marked with white. With a mild astonishment, he found that he looked a little like Shadow now as well as the hedgehog.

Even though he detested being a copy of anything, looking a little Shadow struck him differently then looking like Sonic. He remembered that he drew a blood sample from Shadow while he was in a comatose state in the pod. His lab study showed that it had the blood of a normal Möbian hedgehog, but there was something unidentified mixed within. It matched nothing nor did it resemble anything.

Shadow. He was rumored to be the ultimate life-form...Metal-Sonic had studied into Prof. Gerald's research, at least the shreds that he had robbed the G.U.N. computer from. It was sketchy, but it seemed that the ultimate life-form could be duplicated, but only within a certain limit. The Biolizard was an aquatic form, and was duplicated from a salamander. He even heard of that beast in the Mystic Ruins that Shadow had met. It was a land life-form, and Shadow had to team up with the other hedgehog to fight it, but unfortunately, Shadow took damage, where Mecha found him later.

For the next few months afterwards, he had been extensively studying Shadow's anatomy and had taken quite a few blood samples. Many would've called Metal-Sonic's studies mad, but Mecha saw it as a personal investment. If he could duplicate whatever made Shadow tick, he too could be a life-form of equal quality. Shadow is a match for the blue hedgehog, and if Mecha could duplicate it.

A smile spread across Mecha's visage, and that was one thing that he loved about his new body most of all. No robot ever could ever duplicate the mouth with all its flexibilities and textures, but Mecha seemed to be the exception to every rule. His new visage could mentally disturb even the hedgehog, he was sure of it. That's what he wanted.

He drummed his claws on the board; no more clanging either. Let the hedgehog face him now; there was no going back to Robotnik again for fixing. He can and will destroy that hedgehog, and then HE will be the original!

A beeping from the terminal interrupted his thoughts. He strode towards the computers, his black cape fluttering in his wake. He opened his network port and read the messages that the terminal announced.

It appears that one of the spy-camera robots caught the hedgehog near the Dagro Desert base, but was running past. Curious...thought Mecha. No doubt that two-tailed kitsune is with them, along with those two chao that he saw on the ARK, three years past.

An inkling of an idea came to Mecha. He had observed how one of the chao, the white one, was efficient with the Chaos Emeralds. His research showed that certain chao can wield certain Emeralds, but there are special chao that can wield all seven. They tended to be white or black of color. He never gave much attention to chao abilities, but now that he knew something about the power of Chaos, he found them much more to his use. Unfortunately, no chao would have anything to do with an assassin robot, especially one involved in world domination.

One chao demonstrated exceptional abilities for even a chao. He found that the white chao had a very strong Chaos aura, very strong more specifically and could do things with it like nothing he had ever seen.

Maybe he should study this white chao a bit more thoroughly...

The email that Sonic and Tails received...he remembered that he used a server from another continent in Möbius to send it. No doubt Tails had traced it and Sonic was out to find out what the deal was...Tails also was going with him to, and the two chao also, including...

Perfect.

- - - - -

Knuckles was working on clearing brush from near his house that day. He let it grow a little too long and it finally began to become a real nuisance, and he finally got around to dealing with the overgrown undergrowth, which he figured to be a great irony.

It was hot, clear and a small breeze stirred the wild grass gently. Knuckles enjoyed the peace the Island offered, and preferred that to the noise of Echidnaopolis, closer to the interior of the island. He always observed the grand city from afar, and ventured into the city, but that was seldom, and if he needed certain supplies not naturally supplied by nature, such as a machete that he was currently using to whack away at the grass.

He had always lived alone, which is a common fate for the Guardians of Angel Island, and was used to it, but he always liked the companionship of the Chaotix as well as a girl that lived in Echidnaopolis, Julie-Su.

He stood up, stretched, mildly hearing the popping in his spine, and felt the breeze. Hmm, it's getting close to the time to go south for the winter months. Since half the Island is composed of tropical flora and fauna, they wouldn't enjoy temperatures like a conifer forest would prefer. Good thing he didn't have that on his Island, he thought with a smirk.

He heard footsteps coming towards him, and he naturally turned to see who was coming. It was the Chaotix, coming from obviously the direction of the city.

"Hey, guys..." Knuckles called towards the foursome.

They all acknowledged Knuckles.

"Whatcha doin', Knux?" Vector asked.

"Oh, I finally got sick of this grass growing so much so close to my house and I wanted to clear it out before any rats decided to take refuge. Don't want those vermin here. What're you doing out here in the sticks? How's the agency going?"

"Slow...until about two hours ago." Espio side-eyed the rest of the Chaotix, and saw his face reflected in everyone else's: a slight glint of curiosity and caution in everyone's eyes.

One of Knuckles' eyebrows rose. "Why, what happened?" Knuckles crossed his arms, after laying the machete down beside him.

Mighty repeated the morning delivery and about the mysterious Client, and his charge as well as the generous price offer.

"Sounds like this guy collects antiques or something."

"We thought about that, but we can't base that on anything unless we get those items, which is why we came here. Is it all right if we borrow one of those portable teleporters you have?"

"Ah, you need to get to the mainland, I see..."

"Yep."

Knuckles rubbed his chin, and then shrugged. "Why not? I'll loan one to you..."

"Thanks a bunch, Knux!" Vector said, smiling.

"But on one condition: I go with you."

All the Chaotix looked slightly shock and slightly affronted. "That's all? You make it sound like a bad thing!"

"You break my teleporter and it will be. I went over hill and dale to get the parts for it, and having someone bust it intentionally or accidentally if I can help it is out of the question."

The Chaotix looked at each other, and then Charmy perked up. "Well, you ARE part of the Chaotix after all..."

"By claim only, but it'll count. I'm going to Hidden Palace to get something. Wait at the house; I'll be back."

Knuckles strode towards an old stone hut that was half buried in brush and rock-growing plants. He walked around it and found small opening, only about two feet high. He crawled through on his hands and knees and slid down the small slope inside. Mounted on the floor was a blue disk on five small legs; a teleporter.

Stepping into it, the dark stone hut suddenly changed into the cold blue crystal-laid caverns of Hidden Palace. He didn't have far to walk, for two turns down the path, the glow of eight power gems shone out in the darkness like separates suns. There were seven relatively small gems, the size of desktop computer monitors; each colored differently, all set in a circle. In the center sat a large green gem, the size of a small car, glowed fiercely in the center of Hidden Palace: The Master Emerald.

Knuckles walked to the Master, and stroked it, admiring its green relaxing glow. "Master Emerald? Create Master miniature, please."

A humming sound from the Emerald, and all of the sudden, a flash of light erupted from beside Knuckles and disappeared, revealing a small gem, astonishingly looking like the Master itself, but about the size of a Chaos Emerald.

"There we go. Now were ready to roll."

Knuckles strode for the teleporter, beamed out, then walked back to his house, where the Chaotix were waiting.

"That didn't take too long," Mighty said dryly.

"It's not hard if you know what to do. C'mon, let's get on the road. The sooner we get this done, the better. Where are we going first?"

"Well, the Client said to go to Casino Park, in Santiago City."

"Figures as much; into civilization. Can't stay away from it, I guess," Knuckles said quietly, smirking a little.

"That brings up a song..." Vector stated quietly, who was always into music when he hears it.

"I don't wanna hear it. My ears still ache from that hardcore CD you bought and played at max volume."

A snicker ran through the Chaotix.

"Laugh it up, cold-bloods."

Mighty immediately interjected, "I'm not cold-blooded!"

"Sure you are! Knuckles is the hot-blooded one!" Charmy taunted, dodging a back-handed blow from Knuckles.

"Say that again, bee-boy, and I'll mount your head on my wall."

Charmy laughed sheepishly.

"Now, if you guys had enough with this idle banter, let's get to the city."

Knuckles set up the teleporter and set the coordinates for Santiago City, and let it warm up for a few seconds after he turned it on.

"There we go; should be working like a windup clock."

"One that's running, I hope..." Espio smirked, since he was facing Knuckles' back.

"Keep talking, chameleon; that way I know where to kick."

Espio conveniently stepped back a few paces then remarked. "Whatever you say, echidna."

Knuckles happened to glance back a fraction and noticed that Espio was out of kicking range, and decided not to try, so as not to look stupid.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Vector asked suddenly.

"Nothin', let's go." Mighty stepped onto the glowing hot-blue lens, which flashed blue, enveloping Mighty until he was just a silhouette, then it faded just as fast as it lit up, taking Mighty with it.

The rest stepped on one each at a time, Knuckles being the last. Once he stepped on, the surroundings quickly changed from the greenery of the Marble Gardens to the sidewalk of Bingo Drive, the street that runs along Casino Park.

"Wow! Look at this place!" Charmy exclaimed.

"It's more spectacular at night, I figure," Knuckles said, watching as the portable teleporter flashed into view. (This teleporter had the ability to teleport itself to the set coordinates after a set time, so the one using the teleporter wouldn't be stranded by accident.)

"I could guess so..." Mighty said, staring at the big neon sign at the park entrance.

"Hey, what are we waiting for?" Espio suddenly said. "We need to find ten black poker chips for our Client."

"Ten black poker chips?" Knuckles whistled. "You guys have your work cut out for you. Blue chips pale at black ones."

"We know, we know..." Vector said. "C'mon, we don't have all day."

The five stalked up to the gate, paid the admission, and entered the chaos inside.

"Dang! This is worse then Christmas sales in Hal-Mart!" Mighty said, being careful while bustling through the crowd.

"One side, please!"

"Hey! That's my foot!"

"Ack! You're squashing me!"

"Hey, honk a horn or something! You're like a semi truck!"

"Yuck! I just stepped in some gum! That ain't ever comin' off."

"Yell 'fire' or something so we can get through, would you Knux?"

"Forget it; too many legal entanglements."

"If I get nudged in the stomach again..."

"Whoa, look at that hot chick!"

"Gosh, I'm hungry!"

"You're always hungry, Charmy."

"Nyah!"

This random bantering by the five went on until up to half an hour, right when they found a relatively open space.

"Wow, that's gonna hurt tomorrow..." Vector said, rubbing his foot gingerly. "It must've been stepped on by the whole town!"

"I knew I didn't like crowds, now I have a reason," Knuckles crossed his arms, and looked a little cross.

"Well, you were right, Knuckles. We DO have our work cut out for us..." Espio said dryly.

"Yes, a bit more so, now..." Knuckles mumbled.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm getting bored standing here; I'm going to look for those Poker chips." Espio's skin suddenly blended into the environment, and he was gone.

"Should've told him to bring back a hot dog," Mighty stated flippantly.

"Oh, please, don't mention food." Charmy gripped his stomach.

"There's a food stand right behind you, Holmes..." Mighty said, motioning behind him.

Charmy glanced over his shoulder. "Oh, I thought I smelled cheese fries."

Charmy buzzed away to satisfy his appetite, while the rest were leaning against the wall to avoid potential trampling.

"I see why you prefer solitude, Knux. The only thing that hasn't been tussled in the crowd is my head," Mighty said.

"This better not be a regular event; I can't stand these crowds," Knuckles mumbled.

By now, Charmy had returned with a few hot dogs and some sodas. "I hope you don't mind grape soda, Knux. All the others were sold out currently."

"If it's drinkable, I'll take it."

Knuckles sipped his soda, his frow slightly altering due to reacting to the strength of the soda.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm going to find those black chips too..." Charmy said, then flew off.

Vector side-eyed Mighty. "Do you have a feeling we'll find him at a slot machine or something?"

"Do you?"

"Nah, I think Charmy can control himself, despite the potential of winning big here..."

Mighty looked away for a second, then back at Vector. "Do you honestly believe that?"

Vector smiled. "Not a word..."

Knuckles chuckled.

- - - - -

Amy and Cream were in the Mystic Ruins. Why there? There were tours of the Mystic Ruins and Amy figured that she'd have to do a research report in school, so she thought the Mystic Ruins would be a great subject. Cream was merely with her because Sally let her, since Amy was now 17 and more mature then before.

"Wow, what a big place!" Cream said in awe.

"Yeah, I was wandering through this place several years ago. Have you ever heard of Chaos?"

"Uh...I think Mr. Sonic said something about him yes. Wasn't he a...monster?"

"Yeah, but I heard that he turned good after Sonic fought him."

Amy never melted at the mere mention of Sonic's name, for her crush over time reformatted into a simple admiration. She still "liked" Sonic, but knew that she had been a pest to him years before, so she thought maybe she was going too strong.

"How can a monster turn good? I thought all monsters are bad..."

"Well..."

While they were waiting for a tour group to assemble, Amy sat down with Cream and told her of Chaos, Tikal and Turos (or Birdy). It may have been over five years before, but it was very fresh in her mind. Again, she was on the Egg Carrier, Final Egg and beating Zero.

"Wow, you had a real adventure..." Cream said adoringly.

"Yes, oh, you were there on the ARK were you?"

"Oh, that big building in space? Yes, it had that black hedgehog in there..."

"Yeah, too bad he died."

"But he didn't! We saw him again, and he was alive!"

Amy couldn't believe it. Shadow? Alive?

"But...how?"

"I don't know...he doesn't like to talk about it much, but earlier clear back when the flowers were coming out, he vanished. We never saw him again...Mr. Sonic doesn't like to talk about that either."

"Disappeared..."

By now, a tour group had been assembled and Amy, Cream and Cheese joined in. They went through the tunnel that led into the forests. The weather was growing humid as the sun rose, but the cave was cool, never exposed to the sun's merciless rays. Cream was a little nervous in the dark, but Cheese tried to comfort her.

A little later found the group exiting out into the humidity of the Mystic Ruins jungle. It was nothing like Cream had ever seen. She had been in a forest before; she lived in one actually, but none as lively as this jungle. There were butterflies, colorful birds and tropical fish in the ponds.

"Wow, it's so pretty..."

Amy agreed. The last time she was here, she was on a mission; not as a tourist. She never had time to look at the majesty and beauty of nature. She watched a flock of rainbow macaws fluttered from the trees. She saw a monkey swinging through the trees, stopping to let out a bellowing cry.

"I never thought it was so beautiful..." Amy said quietly.

"Eww!" Cream leapt back in revulsion. Amy looked and saw that a large snake was slithering across their path, heading towards the water. It disappeared into the water, only concerned about catching a nice fish for dinner.

"Well, that was nice..."

"I hate snakes...they're all slimy and yucky..."

"Hey!" Cheese exclaimed. "What's that!?"

All looked to what Cheese was pointing at. They could see nothing at first, but they didn't have to wait long; out of the river hopped out a large, tropical-green frog as large as a young retriever. It was slender and had big yellow eyes that peered at the three inquisitively.

"It's...a frog!" Amy said.

"A big frog!" Cream said. "Another slimy thing. Take it away!"

Cheese stared back at it in curiosity. He had seen frogs before in the creeks near Knothole, but he had never seen such a huge frog before, let along one native to the tropics, which looked quite different then the earthy-colored frogs of the temperate regions.

"Froggy!" a voice called from far away.

The large frog cocked its head, and hopped away to the voice.

"Hey! Let's follow it!" Amy said.

"Why?" Cream asked.

"If it responded to a call like that, it must be domestic. It has an owner. I want to meet him..." Amy responded. "C'mon!"

Amy grabbed Cream by the hand and walked her along. Cheese fluttered along his mistress' side.

There were several turns in the path, and many a fallen tree branch. Amy received a scrape on her arm and poor Cream on her knee. But when they reached the end of the path, they found what they had been looking for.

They ran into an open place in the forest along a red-rock cliff. On the base was a lowly hut with no walls, except the part where it was built into the tree. The roof was simply large assorted tree leaves.

But it wasn't the hut itself that caught their attention. It was the resident of the hut that did. It was the largest and most certainly the fattest cat that either of the girls had ever seen. It was a purplish color and had a good-manner about it. Despite its homely life, it looked happy and content. It was fishing in a water-hole and looked determined to catch a fish.

The cat looked up and saw the two girls. "Hello. Who are you?"

Amy, being the older of the two, thought it her duty to answer. "Hi. I'm Amy and right here's Cream..."

"Hi!" Cream replied. She at first thought the cat was dangerous, due to its size, but the well-manner it presented changed her mind.

"Hello. I'm Big, and this is Froggy..."

The frog, Froggy, croaked in reply.

"What are you two doing out here in the jungle?" Big asked, letting fly the lure into the water-hole again.

"We were on a tour, and we saw the frog so we followed him here." Amy glanced at the hut. "Do you really live here?"

"Yup," Big nodded. "I built it a long time ago. Took me a long time, but I did it..." Big seemed to beam with pride.

"I like it...reminds me of home..." Cream said.

"You live in a jungle?" Big asked, a little excited. Living in a jungle was lonely, which was why he had Froggy, and was always eager to find out if he wasn't alone.

"Kind of. It's a big forest a long way that way." Cream pointed northwards.

"I never went thataway...there's not enough water for Froggy and I for fishing..."

"There's a nice fishing hole near where I live...we also go swimming and stuff there too..."

As Cream was carrying on a casual conversation with Big, who found it nice to talk to who happened to live in a forest, kind of like himself, Amy had stepped back and was looking at the wildflowers along the road, when the unthinkable happened.

She glanced up again and saw a pair of glowing red eyes peering straight at her.

Amy cried out in surprise, and the other two looked towards her. In a flash, a dark figure sprang out of hiding.

"Watch out!" Amy cried, falling backwards on the pathway.

Big had just stood up, ready to run. The figure raced by him and snatched up Froggy into its clutches. The poor Froggy was too stunned to even struggle. The stranger suddenly ran away into the distance, and was gone almost instantly.

"Quick! Let's follow him!" Amy said, at once on her feet and dawning her ever-present mallet. She ran after the kidnapper, quickly followed by Big and Cream.

Amy didn't even know whom she was chasing, or how dangerous he really was, but when she perceived an injustice, her first reaction was to right the wrong. So she was running as fast as she could down the uneven path.

She mildly wondered how it could run so fast. The only ones that she knew that could run so fast were Sonic and Shadow, but this one looked like neither, as far as she could tell.

She reached a bend, and skidded to a halt. In front of her was a 700-foot cliff that vanished into dense jungle growth below. She squeaked in fright in spite of herself, fell backwards onto her bottom.

The others ran up a few moments later gasping for breath. "Where'd he go?" Big said, tongue hanging out slightly.

"I lost him!" Amy cried out. "He disappeared over the cliff!"

"Oh, Mr. Big. I'm sorry!" Cream said compassionately. She always felt bad of someone lost something dear.

"Poor Froggy. He's had bad luck since I lost my lucky charm..." Big's ears drooped in sadness.

"We'll help you find him!" Cream said. "I'm not afraid!"

"I'll bite him if he comes again!" Cheese said, looking angry.

"Count me in!" Amy said suddenly, her pink spines bristling. "I won't stand for this, taking someone's friend."

"Yes!" Big said. "We'll find Froggy again!"

Amy smiled. "Big, do you know if we can get down from here?"

Big took in the question, scratched his head for a while in thought, then said, "I think there's a long path thataway..." Big pointed to the left of the group, somewhere along the cliffside.

"You lead the way. We're going to get to the bottom of this..." Amy pounded her fist into her palm.

"Ok!" the other three replied.

The four took off along the rim, looking for the path that Big had described.


	3. Chapter 3: Captured!

**Chapter 3: Captured!**  
--

Sonic was running at over 500 miles an hour on the ground, while Tails was in the sky, the Tornado in battle mode for more speed. The Tornado wasn't as fast as Sonic, but Tails could track Sonic through his wrist communicator.

Frosty and Dash were sleeping in the back seat. It was a long trip through the Dagro Desert and the droning noise from the Cyclone had made them sleepy.

Tails was looking over the email they had received from Eggman. Secret weapon...that could me anything. Giant laser system, ridiculously oversized mech, biological stuff, anything.

The first two didn't bother him; the latter of all those worried him. Dr. Robotnik was a genius and was heavily experienced in the realm of the robotic industry. At one time, Sally had traced Robotnik's financial records and found that he, under a false name, had sold some of his older projects that weren't top secret to different military facilities all around Möbius.

During the Robotropolis years, Robotnik had also dabbled in biological warfare. Tails recalled with a chill when he and Sonic were on a sabotaging mission and discovered a chemical plant. Sonic and Tails had snuck in and had taken photos through a small camera. It took another day to get them developed, and when they saw the new photos, all of the stomachs turned. The chemicals were commonly used in biological warfare and were extremely dangerous. Needless to say, Sonic stopped whatever was going on in there fast enough.

Tails thoughts were interrupted with the communicator in the cockpit buzzed. "Yeah?" Tails answered.

"Just checking on ya, kid. You're drifting to the south..."

Tails looked at his GPS system. Yep, he had drifted about 10 degrees to the south during his train of thought. Tails redirected his course towards the server location, and continued.

Just what would they do when they got there? he wondered. What if it wasn't in one of Eggman's bases at all? He knew that some servers were set to wireless connections, but the limits of that were that you had to be within a certain distance of a port. Of course, it was a server. He could be using another server too. Tails' stomach twisted a little. They could be on a wild goose chase.

Tails looked at the radar again, and found that the server location was within 20 miles of their location. At about the same time, Sonic called in.

"Heya, kid. I ran ahead of ya, and there's an old shack. Pretty run down...looks like an old mine shack or something..."

"Got it..." Tails checked the radar again, and saw something interesting. "Hey, Sonic! The signatures from your communicator and the server are right next to each other. See anything?"

There was a pause. "Rocks."

"Funny, Sonic. I'm coming your way..."

"Gotcha, skipper...careful; this place is in a pretty rocky area. Almost mountains..."

A few minutes later found Sonic waving towards Tails from an outcrop of rock. Tails couldn't land straight due to the rocky surface. He switched to walker-form and landed on a relatively flat place. About 50 feet away was a broken-down, weather-beaten hut.

"Wow...!" exclaimed Frosty and Dash in unison.

"You owe each other Cokes...," Sonic smirked.

Tails deactivated the Cyclone and leapt out of the walker, spinning his tails to soften the landing. "Doesn't look like much..."

"Yep. Looks like if one sneezed, poof! It'd be gone..."

Tails looked inside the Cyclone's cockpit again, checking the radar. "Well, the server signature is pointing here..." Tails took a good look around. "I don't see anything..."

"Me neither. Either it's invisible or inside the hut..." Sonic shrugged. "Kind of hard to miss new technology in this rat-hole..."

"Should we go inside?"

"One thing first..." Sonic reached inside the cockpit and pulled out the Blue Chaos Emerald. "In case..."

Dash piped up. "What about us?"

"Stay here and watch the Cyclone. See anything, give us a yell, k?" Sonic said.

"Roger!" Dash saluted, but fell over in the seat. Frosty stifled a giggle.

Sonic and Tails climbed up the rocks, slipping on the stones once or twice, inching closer to the hut.

"Whew, what a view!" Sonic exclaimed, looking over the desert below.

Tails looked, but continued towards the hut. "C'mon, Sonic!"

"Ok, ok..."

The two climbed on up towards the hut. It was such a hard climb, for not very far, the rocks were tilted at odd angles and the walking was hard. Their feet felt hot inside their shoes from the extra work they had to endeavor the climb.

After a few minutes, and after receiving some scrapes, the two walked up towards the door of the beaten up.

"Geesh, Green Acres to the extreme..."

Tails tried the door, but the weather had dealt a heavy number on the latch and the hinges and it was shut tight. "It's stuck!" Tails pulled harder. "I can't do it."

"Lemme try..." Sonic tried, but was also fruitless. "Dang, how long has it been like this?"

"I dunno. See a window or anything?" Tails asked.

A quick search revealed a window, but it was barred up. "Well, that's nice..." said Tails.

"Hang on..." Sonic squinted through the cracks between the nailed planks. "I think I can teleport in there. I just have to see enough...ready, Tails?"

Tails grabbed Sonic's wrist. "Ready."

Sonic lifted up the Blue Chaos Emerald. "Chaos Relocate!"

To a bystander, it looked like a flash of light. To either Sonic or Tails, it looked as if a strong wind came up and blew away the desert, and blew in the dusty indoors of the cabin. When the teleportation was complete, both coughed a few time in the dusty air.

"Dusty..." Sonic coughed.

Tails took a quick glance around the cabin. Nothing really out of the ordinary...

"See anything, Sonic?" Tails breathed.

A pause in the dust for a second. "Zilch. A guy could make a fortune selling vacuum cleaners here..."

There was a lot of what looked like a bunch of sacks of preserved food canisters. Tails lightly nudged them with his foot. Sonic was testing the boards by stomping his foot. Sounded solid enough.

Tails foot snagged against something, and it surprised the kitsune so much that he had to catch himself from falling flat onto the bags. Curiosity burning through his mind, he threw the dusty burlap bags, trying to find anything that could identify with what his foot caught.

"Sonic! Look!"

Sonic erected, and walked quickly towards the kitsune. Tails beckoned with his hands and eyes to a small black box, about the size of an iPod© Nano. A cord ran away from it into a crack in the floor just a few inches away from the device.

"That's gotta be the console. It's too weird to be in this place to be anything else," Sonic said.

"If only I could get the Cyclone plugged into it; I could trace its origin some more."

"Well, let's take it TO the Cyclone..." Sonic stooped to pick it up.

"Sonic! Don't!" Tails shouted.

But it was too late. Sonic touched the device, and he leapt back as if he was shocked by electricity. Tails looked at Sonic to see him gingerly shaking his hand as if trying to re-inflate it. A crackling of electricity attracted his attention to the device, and to his dismay, saw that it self-destructed.

Sonic stalked back towards Tails and saw what was left of the device. "Dang it! Eggman had it self-destructible!"

Suddenly, both heard what sounded like a cry of fright outside.

"What was that!?" Tails shouted.

"That sounded like Dash! He's in trouble!" Sonic flew at the boarded up window in a spin, crashing through it. The wood was old and rotting, and couldn't stand to Sonic's withering attack. Tails threw himself out after him. Picking himself up, he saw Sonic already making tracks to the Cyclone. Tails jumped up and parachuted down after him.

Sonic made it first and found a hysterical Dash lying on the floor of the Cyclone, obviously suffering from shock. "What happened!?" Sonic asked, very concerned for his chao-friend.

"He took her! And the Chaos Emerald!" Dash said, half-screaming.

"What!?"

"Metal-Sonic appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Frosty AND the White Emerald!" Dash broke down in sobs of hysteria.

Sonic jumped back and looked wildly in every direction for any sign of the robot, but there was none.

Tails ran up just a few seconds later. "What happened!?"

"Dash saw Metal-Sonic kidnap Frosty and took the Emerald with him! Dash is hysterical..."

Tails looked shocked, about to cry; Sonic winced inside.

"Frosty?...Mecha..." Tails sank down, trying very hard not to cry. "I can't believe it..."

"You okay?"

Tails didn't respond, but stared at the dirt under his feet. "What are we gonna do?"

"Do? Do!?" Sonic exclaimed. "We're gonna hunt down Mecha and I'm so gonna kick his butt into next year. C'mon! Let's kick some butts..."

Tails felt his heart rise at Sonic's statements. "I'm coming, Frosty..."

Sonic helped Tails up and both stalked to the Cyclone, fuming at Mecha's gall. "Tails, can you get the Cyclone to fly out of here?"

"Not unless it suddenly flattened out. It's too rocky. If we can get this to the desert floor, we should be able to get out of here..."

"Ok. I'll go first to test the rocks. You follow me, ok?"

"Got it." Tails leapt into the Cyclone and started it up. Dash was still a bit shocked at the scare, but was recovering. He stroked the leather lining of the seat, trying to calm down.

Sonic took a quick glance at the rocky mountainside. Straight down was way too treacherous; several rocks were broken and sharp as rose-thorns. No good going straight down...

He took a look to his left. The rocks weren't so broken, and it seemed rather gradual. Sonic motioned to Tails and waved his hand towards the left-hand side. Tails glanced that direction, and nodded. They would give it a try.

Sonic went first, stomping hard to test the strength of the rocks. Tails guided the Cyclone over the rocky mountainside. There was nothing except the sounds of Sonic and the Cyclone's footfalls on the rough earthen rock for a good fifteen minutes.

Soon, they came to a place where there seemed to be a large slab of rock sitting amongst the jagged ones. Sonic guided the mech onto the rock, and began stalking towards the desert floor.

About half-way down the slope, both stopped to hear what sounded like thunder. Sonic looked around, expecting to see some storm.

"Tell me that was your stomach..." Tails said from the Cyclone.

"Shh!" Sonic hissed, ears perked. His fingers grasped the Blue Chaos Emerald hard, his knuckles turning white under the gloves.

Dash looked out from the cockpit. "Was that thunder?"

The rumbling continued then subsided again. Sonic and Tails glanced at each other, and slowly, their eyes looked down to the ground under their feet.

Suddenly, there was an enormous crack! A long dark crack snaked its way across the rock and between the legs of Sonic and the Cyclone. Before anything could be done, the whole rock split down inwards and Sonic, Tails and the Cyclone fell through.

Sonic and Tails screamed as they fell deeper into the newly created hole.

- - - - -

The Chaotix and Knuckles tromped into a lobby of a building located on the back of the Casino Park. The sun was setting, casting an orange light through the windows.

"Wow, I never would've thought it take so long..." Knuckles breathed, leaning against the wall.

"It would've been shorter if Charmy wasn't a gambling freak!" Vector said pointedly towards the bee.

"Hey! I got us at least 500 bucks!" Charmy looked indignant.

"You were supposed to getting us black poker chips, you insect..." Espio glared.

"Geesh, can a guy get a little fun or what?"

"Quiet!" Mighty exclaimed. "All that park noise was enough. I don't need more..."

Vector sighed. "Sorry...we have a job to do. We need to get to Mr...uh...what was his name?"

Espio mumbled something incomprehensible, then replied clearer, "Kodiak."

"Thank you..." Vector side-eyed Espio, but all he saw was that his eyes were closed and he was still.

"Well, let's find someone who can take us to him..."

A quick search found a receptionist who informed the boss about the visitors and their desire to see him. Then a quick trip up then elevator and a quick trot down a few halls found them in an office where there was a redwood door with a brass sign reading "Mr. Karl Kodiak; Owner, Chief Executive of Casino Park Operations."

Knuckles knocked on the door, and nearly at once they heard a gruff voice saying "Enter." The Echidna opened the door and all entered. The chair spun around and there behind a large desk sat a man whose rusty features and piercing silver eyes struck the Chaotix as if leadership of a business seemed to be his very blood and nature.

"You must be the Chaotix Detectives..." Kodiak started, his silver eyes seeming to scan them.

Vector stepped forwards. "Yes. We received contact from our Client to contact you for a part he has specially ordered."

Knuckles saw Mr. Kodiak as he studied them out again. For some reason, he didn't trust this man. Maybe it was just the way his eyes moved to one individual to another. Maybe it was his non-changing manner. Maybe he was just nuts himself...

Kodiak cleared his throat and continued. "If I recall correctly, there was a sum that was needed to verify that you were indeed the Chaotix Detectives, your licenses notwithstanding. I believe it was ten black poker chips."

Espio stepped forward next and tossed a small sack onto the desk, making a chingling noise, and stepped back again. Mr. Kodiak glanced at the bag for three seconds, then his hand crept through the air to the bag, and with his slender fingers, he dug into the bag and out came two black Poker chips. After giving them a glance, he dumped the rest of the bag's contents onto the desks. Eight black chips slipped out and clattered onto the desktop.

Kodiak looked at each one carefully, and although no one else showed it, they were growing impatient. The room was air conditioned, and since Vector, Charmy and Espio were cold-blooded so they didn't like cold places. Mighty was tapping a finger, barely visible in his crossed-arms. Knuckles was just agitated. How long did this loser have to take?

After what seemed like hours, Kodiak put down the chips. "You do your Client proud. I only wish I had people in my line of work who were so diligent. I shall be right back with the purchase."

The rusty-haired man stood up and strode for a lonely door on the far-side of the room. The Chaotix shared a collective sigh of relief. They knew they did their best, but you never would know if some yokel would leave a fake behind.

Kodiak returned with a box about the size of an ordinary shoebox. "You're Client must be quite a computer expert. This item you can't find in stores anywhere in Möbius or even back on Earth."

"Well, thanks." Vector took the box. "C'mon, boys. We must contact the Client."

"Farewell, Mr. Kodiak," Espio said, then followed the others out the door.

They all trudged onto the elevator.

"Well, that wasn't so hard..." Mighty said.

"Where's the communicator?" Vector asked.

"Right here, chief!" Charmy said, holding up the communicator.

Vector switched it on. "Hello?"

The synthesized voice came through. "Yes? Is this Vector?"

"We got the purchase from Mr. Kodiak."

"Excellent! Now you need to get the next item on the list. To get them, you will need to go to the Polaris Power Plant, the experimental energy department. You'll know the contact when he says 'It's a nice night out, isn't it?' You must reply, 'It's a little wet, but not bad.' Is it clear?"

"Got it." Vector replied.

"Now, hurry."

The communicator clicked off.

"Polaris Power Plant..." Mighty repeated. "Isn't that the power plant owned by the government back in Sapphire City?"

"I think so..." Espio replied. "It's a good thing we brought that portable teleporter..."

Knuckles grunted in agreement. "Well, let's get on with it. Hopefully, we'll get this item before dark. We'll teleport back to the island once we get it."

"Roger!" The Chaotix chorused.

The elevator doors opened and out they went. The sun had sunk lower in the west and now bathed everything in orange and pink. The five stepped out the doors and into the bustling evening.

- - - - -

"Shadow..."

"Shadow..."

"Your time is coming near..."

Shadow leapt from where he slept and looked around wildly, expecting to see an enemy, but all he saw was Rouge hanging upside-down from a nearby conifer tree, and Omega standing upright, looking dark against the flames from a nearby campfire...

Slowly, his thoughts re-gathered themselves. They had already gotten out of the Frog Forest and were in a conifer forest. They were heading north for the northern mountains, official, also known as the Black Mountain Range.

Black...

A thought flowed through his head. Black Mountains. Was he there before? Was there...a battle?

"Ugh!" Shadow fell off the rock he was sitting on and grasped his head. He wasn't injured, but he felt as if a lightning bolt of emotion struck him in the brain. After a few seconds, the pain faded and he was able to stand up.

"Wha--?"

A mental picture of himself lying on a rocky ledge, covered in snow seemed to visibly float across his eyes.

"What was I doing up there?"

Shadow looked down at the ground for a moment, then he recalled on his Chaos training and remembered that there was a Chaos Emerald that could show the past and the future. He then recalled that Rouge kept the Chaos Emerald they had in her carrying pouch.

He strode towards the pouch which was lying underneath Rouge's head. Shadow quietly reached into it and pulled out the Chaos Emerald. To not wake Rouge, he covered the glow as best he could with his hands and crept away into the shadows of the forest trees. He sat down against a trunk and peered into the Purple Emerald. The fur was beginning to stand up on his arm, but he took no notice. Somewhere, deep in the facets of this Emerald hopefully was his past.

He sat there for a deadly long time, staring into the Emerald until his eyes hurt. He could feel different powers such as Chaos Control, Chaos Blast, Chaos Spear, and he even found one that seemed very powerful that he was amazed how so much power was indwelt in this Emerald.

Shadow let his eyes relax. How far did this Emerald go? Was this the wrong Emerald?

He tried again, but the same thing happened. He simply couldn't dig that far, if it was that far. Despondent, he put the Emerald back into the bag and simply stared towards the northern mountains.

What would he find there? Was it a true memory of his past?

Shadow stared north for a long time, then eventually, he climbed back onto the rock and resumed sleeping.

Rouge lifted his eyes to see Shadow stir on the rock and finally was still. She saw everything from his leaping awake to now. Her sensitive hearing detected his startled gasp when he first awoke, but she continued feigning sleep so as not to attract attention. Why did Shadow need the Emerald? What did he do with it?

She considered asking him about it the next morning, but wondered behind the wisdom of it.

If Shadow wasn't so dangerous, it would've been easier, but Shadow's reputation of being a killer was still there, and Rouge didn't want to get on his black list.

She pushed the troubled thoughts of her mind out and resumed sleep.


	4. Chapter 4: Remeeting

**Chapter 4: Remeeting**  
--

Big was busy roasting a 20-lb eel, and watching the two girls snuggling against the warm fire. He never had many friends, except Froggy, and never bothered to try civilization. He was happy in this jungle.

Still, watching the two girls chatter made him wonder again. They had families. They had friends. They had fun.

Big turned the spit again, realizing that he almost left it burn one side.

At the thought of friends, he dearly missed Froggy. Poor little pollywog friend. Ever since he lost that lucky charm, that pretty yellow gem, Froggy has been having bad luck. It all started with that bad water monster. He couldn't remember the name, but he dreaded it ever since. Thanks to a blue hedgehog, he was able to rescue Froggy.

"Mr. Big?" Cream spoke up. She had noticed Big, and he seemed a little sad. "Are you okay?"

"I miss Froggy..." Big sighed.

Cream walked towards Big, and hugged his huge arm. "Don't worry. We'll get him back."

"I hope so."

Amy stepped back, eyeing the eel. "Hey, Cream. Can you eat fish?"

"Oh...I didn't think of that..."

"You don't like fish?" Big asked.

"I'm a rabbit," Cream said matter-of-factly. "Rabbits can't eat fish..."

"That's too bad. Fish are good..." Big looked at the eel, turning browner, then his eyes brightened. "Hey, I have an idea. You keep turning the spit, and I'll find you something to eat, ok?"

"Ok!" Cream said. She grabbed the spit-handle and began to turn. Big got up and stalked into the darkness of the wet jungle.

"Mr. Big is a nice cat..." Cream said.

"Yeah..." Amy said. "I met him before actually..."

"You did?"

"Yeah...I couldn't remember right away, but I remember meeting him on the Egg Carrier."

"The what?"

"The Egg Carrier. It was a big battleship that Dr. Eggman created. Sonic destroyed it years ago..."

"Wow...was it scary?"

"Nah. Dr. Eggman doesn't scare me..." Amy said, although she knew it that it was only partly true.

"Wow, I wish I was so brave..."

About this time, Big returned with some tropical fruit that he had found on some nearby trees. "Here you go, Cream. I hope it's good enough."

Cream picked up one of the fruits in and studied over. Was it any good? She heard a little bit of smacking nearby and looked to see what it was. Cheese had taken a fruit and was mauling it messily. Apparently Cheese had no objections with it, so she took a bite.

It was delicious! Cream thought she never tasted a sweeter nectarine in her life! She finished the rest of it quickly enough. "Thank you, Mr. Big..."

"You're welcome."

Big inspected the cooked eel and decided it was done enough, so he used his filet knife to cut the eel into smaller pieces and split the pieces with Amy. The girl hedgehog never has eel, but was willing to try, and was surprised to find that it was rather delicious. She always seen eels as something slimy and disgusting, but this meal gave her a whole new look.

"Gosh, this is great!" Amy said.

"Eels are good, but I like some of the fish I find in the salty water farther away. They're really good..."

"Maybe you can catch them sometime and show us..." Amy said, spirits rising.

"It's more fun with Froggy..." Big said wistfully, ears dropping slightly.

Cream put down her nectarine and hugged Big's large leg. "We won't stop trying until we find Froggy!"

Big felt his spirits rise. He earned new friends...

- - - - -

Frosty woke up in the darkness of a metal cell. She felt like her head was going to explode as she rubbed her eyes, trying to see in the eerie darkness...

She wasn't sure what happened. One moment, she was chatting wistfully with Dash, and the next, she was here. She couldn't think straight with that headache.

She heard something. It sounded like someone tapping on a metal plate. Wait, they sounded like footsteps.

All the sudden, the room lit up as apparently a door opened. Frosty blinked in the light. The door closed again, but the light didn't leave. It looked as if it was contained in a crystal ball in what looked like a clawed hand. Wait, there was something else...two lights...blood red...

"Hello, Frosty the Chao..."

The voice made Frosty jump; she didn't expect someone to come in here. "Who...who are you?"

"You know me...you just don't remember me...now..."

Frosty thought about it. The voice...oily, strangely gentle in a freaky way, low...Shadow's voice came anywhere close, but Frosty knew he was dead. Besides, he never spoke so gently.

"I don't know your voice..."

"Because you have forgotten it. Have you really forgotten who I am?"

Frosty didn't answer, but shook her head.

"Then I'll have to show you."

The lights switched on and Frosty stood blinking once again. Once she could stand the light, she opened her eyes.

She gasped. "It's you!"

"Correct. I hoped we would meet again." The figure flexed his claws. "When you last observed me, I was but a robot servant, now I am the master!"

Frosty looked at the figure of Metal-Sonic in front of him. He looks twice as big as the last time she saw him back on the ARK. What happened!? He was also holding the White Chaos Emerald.

"But enough of this idle banter. I'm here to inform you that I am needing you for tests. If you cooperate, I shall release you. If you don't, your master will die by my claws."

Frosty gulped. The situation was beginning to sink in...

"You have one hour to decide." Metal-Sonic put the White Chaos Emerald on a cabinet, deactivated the lights and stalked out of the room, closing the door.

It was just Frosty, and the Emerald, with industrial-strength metal bars between them. Captured by Metal-Sonic...

The thought was enough to make her cry...

- - - - -

Sonic groaned in the darkness, stirring some. He lay half-buried in rubble from the rockslide and he felt like he was the pins in a bowling tournament. He held his head for a moment. What the heck happened?

Oh, yeah, he remembered. There was a collapse of some sort and he and Tails were in the midst of it, right on top of it. Tails! Sonic wrestled through the rocks that were covering him up partially, moaning at his pounding headache.

"Tails?" Sonic called. He called again, "Tails!?"

"Sonic?" came a weak reply.

"Tails! Hang on! I'm coming!" Sonic scrambled over the loosen rocks, towards his friend. He found him still in the Cyclone, which looked like it was caught in a hailstorm.

"Tails! You're bleeding!"

Tails looked up, teary-eyed and trying to put pressure on the cut on his head. "It hurts a lot!"

Dash leapt out of the back seat. He was dusty, but seemed to be the only one barely scathed from the fall. "Sonic! We got to get help!"

Sonic rushed down the rocks, half-stumbling down the slope, and ran up to Tails. "It'll be all right, kid. Here, let me see it..."

Tails gingerly lifted his hand off the bloody wound, and Sonic let out an oath. "We gotta get that treated! Do we have a first-aid kit in here or something?"

Dash dived back down into the seat and came back up, lugging a white box with a red cross on it. "Here." Dash fumbled with the locks and opened it.

Sonic snatched up the antiseptic. "This might sting, Tails, but we gotta have this clean otherwise it might get infected." Sonic soaked a cotton swab with the antibacterial substance and gingerly dabbed the cloth against the ghastly wound.

"Ow!" Tails shouted, cringing slightly.

"I know it sucks, bro, but I gotta keep you alive."

Sonic dabbed more at the wound, ignoring the blood that was staining his gloves. Tails was more important. Tails, tried to hold still as much as he could, but it stung like an angry hornet! Dash was hugging to Tails' arm, telling him everything was all right.

"Dash, can you hand up a roll of gauze and a clump of cotton?" Sonic asked.

"Sure," Dash replied, leaving Tails' arm to dig further into the kit. "Here they are."

Sonic took up the cotton clump and set it against the wound. Then, he took up the roll of gauze and wrapped it around Tails' head, under one ear and above the other. He wrapped it around three times and cut it off the main roll. He then tucked the end into the wraps of the gauze to prevent it from slipping apart.

"You'll all right, kid?"

"It's okay. It stings a little still...I feel like I'm wearing a tight hat lopsided."

Sonic half-chuckled. "Can you get out?"

Tails stood up, shakily. "I think so..."

Tails slowly climbed out, wincing from developing bruises. Dash leapt out into Sonic's arms. "I'm okay," Tails responded, after getting out.

"I wonder what caused this cave to collapse..."

"It was probably just weak," Tails said, looking around and up through the hole in the cave roof.

"Hey, where your Emerald, Sonic?" Dash asked suddenly.

Sonic realized that he didn't have the Emerald. "It must be where I feel!" Sonic raced back to the spot, and was relieved to see the Blue Chaos Emerald just sitting there. He scooped it up and raced back to Tails, who was looking at the Cyclone.

"I wonder how were gonna get it out..." Tails said.

"It'd be the pits if we had to leave her behind..." Sonic said.

"Please, don't say that..." Tails said; the same thought crossed his mind and it unnerved him.

"How 'bout how are WE gonna get out of here?" Dash said.

"Good question..." Sonic looked up at the hole in the ceiling.

"Well...well...well..." a voice rang out.

All jump and looked around wildly. They didn't expect someone to suddenly speak up.

"Hey! Who is that?" Sonic called out.

"Give me a break! C'mon, Sonic; don't tell me you forgot who beat your tail in the races last summer!"

There was a whoosh and Sonic and Tails saw someone in a blur speed by them for a split-second. The figure doubled back and slowed to a floating halt in the air. It was a forest-green hawk, wearing googles and red boots with black, flaming highlights. He was riding a green Extreme Gear board of a similar color of his feathers.

"Jet!?" Sonic, Tails and Dash exclaimed at once.

"Well, look what the rats drug in..." Jet the Hawk lowered his air-board to land. "What's the fastest thing alive doing in my territory?"

Sonic, in the face of his newest rival, replied. "I decided to drop in."

"You live here?" Tails asked.

"You kidding me?" Jet stepped off the board. "Babylon Garden is on the other side of the range. These tunnels are part of the Rogue's network. So, Sonic, what kind of cheap biz leads you to the Rogues?"

"Old Egghead," Sonic said. "His crony, Metal-Sonic, took off with Tails' chao and one of the Chaos Emeralds."

"So, old Eggbutt's back..." Jet laughed. "I thought he'd never come back after embarrassing himself about the magic carpet."

"You know old Eggman: he never gives up."

"Hmph, like he'll come back here. Otherwise, we'll kick his butt over the range and back over again. You bring your Gear?"

"Left it back in Santiago City."

"You suck..."

"Hey, do you how to get out of here?" Dash called.

"Heh, I see you brought the chao. The only way out is through Babylon Garden...and what makes you think that I'm gonna just let you waltz through..."

"Dude, hello?" Sonic said, irritated. "We got a date with Eggman..."

"If you'll race me, I'll let you go..."

Sonic blinked. "Heck, why not..."

"But what about my plane?" Tails asked.

"What about it?" Jet said coolly; he never did care much for aircraft, since it seemed that his Gear was better at things of that sort.

"Hey, be nice to him. Remember, he built the gear when I beat you in the Garden last time, remember?"

Jet snorted impudently, then let out a whistle. In a few seconds, two more figures swooped in on their Extreme Gear. One was a purple, graceful swallow named Wave. The other was a large, husky albatross: Storm.

Both landed on either side of Jet, and studied the hedgehog, chao and kitsune.

"Well, long time no see..." Wave said.

"Hey!" Storm shouted. "I wanted to say that!"

"Don't...start..." Jet said, beak gritted.

Sonic and Tails stifled a laugh.

"Storm! Help the fox get his machine out and lead him back to the Garden."

"Yes, chief..."

Storm started digging at the loose rock, while Jet led Sonic and Dash away. Wave mumbled very quietly, "Finally, he's doing some worth while for a change..."

- - - - -

The wind was blowing. The air was freezing. The mountains were threatening.

The two Möbians and robot were making their way through the frigid and forbidding mountains of the Northern Black Mountains. Shadow walked steadily through the blowing snow, arms crossed against his chest. Normally, there weren't really bad snowstorms in this late September weather, but a freak storm system had blown up and was pounding on the range.

Shadow's iron self-will was telling him that he shouldn't give up on finding a Chaos Emerald; however, his senses were telling him that if he spent much more time in this frozen wasteland, he would join the dead.

He glanced behind him and saw Rouge and Omega. Rouge was behind Omega, trying to shelter herself from the winter blast. Omega stood firm against the wind; cold made his hardware work more efficiently for it now had no risk of overheating. Still, he initiated system lockdown for the snow was sometimes up to the waist for him and getting water into his chassis was out of the question.

"Shadow. Bio-status for both you and Rouge are nearing critical. Seek shelter, or you shall suffer a loss of internal temperature within 15.4 minutes," Omega called through the wind.

Shadow heard every word, but again his self-will told them to continue. As he rubbed his hands, however, his fingers felt sluggish and stiff. He was already feeling the effects of pre-frostbite. If he obeyed his will, he would die and his quest would be in vain. They must find shelter.

"Omega. Scan for possible shelters..." Shadow said, slightly shivering in the frosty winds.

"Affirmative." Omega stood still for one second, then answered. "Possible location acquired: approximately twenty meters north-north-east."

Shadow took point and lead them to Omega's location find: a small cave that was sheltered from the wind. They trudged in and at once Rouge felt better against the cold. Her slim suit nearly chilled at once with the cold and it mad her hurt badly. She was half angry at Shadow for continuing like he did at night in this weather, but he also understood his desperation. Shadow's mind was a blank, and he believed that finding his old Emerald would give him answers.

"Omega, can you find some wood and start a fire?" Rouge said, a slight shiver in her voice.

"Affirmative..." Omega stalked back out into the mayhem of the mountains.

It was now Rouge and Shadow alone now. Shadow stood stalk still in the darkness of the cave, obviously brooding. Rouge had a strange instinct pricking her in the back of her mind that Shadow shouldn't be talked to when in this manner, but she was curious.

She hadn't seen him since his "death" outside the ARK, when he and Sonic went Hyper and killed the Biolizard and saved the ARK from crashing into the planet. She always had counted him as dead, but that was just about two years ago. How on earth did Shadow survive?

Or is this the real Shadow?

A dozen trains of thought flew through her mind at this new question. If this Shadow wasn't the real one, what was he?

Biological clone? Bio-mechanical robot? She heard about the experiments with the roboticizer and that it used a biotic-metal alloy, kind of like a cross between industrial steel and organic material. One inexperienced in the science field would feel his head reel at the irony in the statement; but like researchers, such as Rouge who did her homework, they would find that this material was feasible. She also heard that there was a way to completely harness the flexibility, impermeability and other properties of organic materials into the tight infrastructure of metal: to make a flexible, but extremely durable metal.

Could Shadow be a "living" example of this revolutionary material? His actions were fluid, and his manner was almost perfect. The only thing was that he seemed to be a bit off was that he was a little panicky. Not very noticeable for those who just knew him, but she had observed him long enough to notice. He seemed...disturbed about something.

Amnesia, perhaps? Maybe...She also recalled a line she said two years before when she was trying to breech Shadow's armor.

_Even your memories are probably not real..._

Could those words happen to have had spoken more truth then Rouge had realized as she spoke the same to Shadow? If Shadow was a biomechanical robot as she assumed, his memories were probably nothing more then kilobytes and megabytes of programming. She was sure Professor Gerald had something to do with Shadow...

Wait a minute: a part of Gerald's diary flashed to life. She had read it when the ARK was about to crash into the earth. It said that the hedgehog that was Shadow was a Chaos-radiated embryo, meaning that Shadow was flesh and blood...

Well, that crossed out one theory: but how did it explain Shadow's seemingly lost memory and his current existence?

He could still be a robot, she figured. It could be a clone that Dr. Robotnik has engineered. After all, he DID have Gerald's journal. No doubt that he happened to have some schematics on certain projects that Prof. Gerald also engineered, including ones dealing with...

Omega came stomping in, carrying large branches of a fir tree and set them on the floor. He switched his weapons to flamethrower and torched the timber wood until it blazed with a welcoming warmth of fire. Rouge got close to the fire to warm her chilled bones and felt relieved at the fire's glow and warmth.

Shadow didn't even stir when Omega came in. Rouge never saw him in such a withdrawn manner before. Whatever is wrong with him, she'd love to help him, but you never know with Shadow...

...if it is the real Shadow, she told herself.

Her brain started working on a way to find out. With biomechanical substances, you can't just look at it, since it mimics flesh and blood. Her brain got an idea: a blood sample. She could have it analyzed and quickly find out who or what this Shadow is...

The trick is...how to get the sample...


	5. Chapter 5: Meeting Viper

**Chapter 5: Meeting Viper**  
--

In the middle of a courtyard (if that's what would you call it despite the fact the majority of the floor, walls and even the ceiling are metal), stood two figures: one was a rugged, navy-blue-colored robot with a sinister atmosphere about him; and the other, a poor frightened chao.

"I consider it wise that you have chosen to participate in my tests." Metal-Sonic began circling the bewildered chao, like a jungle cat studying its prey. "As you may see, I went through many upgrades to reach where I am. I am able to heal myself from injuries, my reflexes activate at 300, and I have considerable stamina. Even the hedgehog cannot match my acquired abilities..."

Frosty remained still, watching Metal-Sonic seemingly orbit around her. She never laid eyes off of him; looking away was too dangerous...

"But I have found that it is not enough. Yes, I may be considered to the amateur "living," and yes, I may seem powerful enough already, but for me, simply copying living material won't give me power.

"In the ancient annals of Möbian history, there were the legendary Emerald Warriors and Onyx Knights; powerful creatures that seem to be indwelt by the power of the Chaos Emeralds, magic in a sense. They seemed almost invincible to anything or anyone that did not know the power of Chaos.

"Unfortunately, when the water creature, Chaos, was angered by the foolishness of weaker mortals, he unleashed his wrath onto everything he had seen, including the powerful Emerald Warriors and Onyx Knights. The art of utilizing the power of Chaos almost died with them. However, if one is willing, the Emerald themselves can teach you.

"You may know that normal robots cannot handle Chaos energy because of the Emeralds' electromagnetic properties; however, I'm not a normal robot as previously stated. I have grown to a state where I am immune to the ill-effects of Chaos energy.

"I also have grown to the belief that I just might be able to control Chaos to use for my own arts. I already know some crude workings, but they aren't enough for my satisfaction.

"That is where you come in, Frosty the Chao. You have exceptional capabilities with the Chaos Emeralds that other chao seldom dream about, leaving out actually using the capabilities."

Frosty, if capable, would've melted into the floor. Metal-Sonic wanted to learn her abilities?

"Remember our terms: I said I would release you after my experiments are complete. I promise that no physical harm will come to you."

Frosty, feeling smaller then the head of a pin, swallowed a boulder and meekly replied, "I remember. Will I get to go back to Tails when we're done?"

Mecha paused. "Indeed."

"...ok..."

"You have chosen wisely..." Metal-Sonic grinned, which made Frosty flinch. "Shall we begin?"

"What...what you do want me to do?"

Metal-Sonic showed the White Emerald once again, but this time within Frosty's reach. "You know..." the robot purred dangerously.

Frosty took the Emerald, looked at it and back at Metal-Sonic, who by some unseen force had moved quickly to a reasonable distance.

"Also, chao, I might remind you that we are contained in a photon-emitting energy shield, which acts as a virtual magnet on nearly all forms of energy, except solar of course, but instead of attracting energy waves, it repels them. There's no getting out unless I command it."

It took little thought for even Frosty's little mind to know that meant no escape. "Ok, you got me, I'll cooperate."

"First, a few questions: how do chao that inherit abilities to harness the infinite amounts of Chaos energy contained within a Chaos Emerald."

"Well..." Frosty paused to think. She could hear Metal-Sonic drumming his claws on a computer panel. "I concentrate really hard in the Emerald. You have to hold it and look deep into it. For us chao, it changes us into an animal. Watch..."

Frosty held the Chaos Emerald close to her eyes, and the fiery white light of the Chaos Emerald soon grew to render her invisible to Metal-Sonic, but he knew better. The light grew to illuminate everything in the room, but faded just as quickly as it grew and revealed a large, snowy owl with purple wing tips. Frosty had transmuted into an owl.

"Is that all you can do?" Metal-Sonic sounded disappointed.

Frosty sensed the enmity in Metal-Sonic. "No. I can do other things..."

The light returned, but instead it was Frosty glowing. The light looked fiery on the chao-owl's feathered hide. All that could be seen on Metal-Sonic's part was what looked like a fiery silhouette of a raptor bird. Frosty flew around the room once or twice, the fire of energy licking off her as she flew.

Once she landed, the silhouette melted into the familiar shape of the chao, clutching the Emerald.

"Interesting. The Chaos Emerald grants the power of light to you. But to me, this is inconsequential. I have witnessed a far greater power when you fought the Egg Walker E-X nearly 4 years ago."

"That's because I was using all the Chaos Emeralds."

"Much like the hedgehog has done numerous times."

"Yeah."

"I did not request your concurrence." Mecha snapped, bending down to take the White Emerald. "It seems our experimentation is over for the time being. You shall remain here until I obtain enough knowledge of the art of Chaos. E-122, return this chao to the containment chamber and have her remain there until further notice. The containment energy-field has been degenerated for the time being."

A large maroon robot with a ridiculously large torso-region and proportionally-incorrect limbs picked up the white chao and took her away. Metal-Sonic was now alone in the room.

"It seems more Emeralds are in order." Mecha stared into the White Emerald deeply, curious.

- - - - -

Tails found himself under the canopy of the ancient marketplace. He was accompanied by only Wave the Swallow, the mechanic of the Babylon Rogues.

"Don't sweat it, shorty. The worst you got from that collapse was that lovely landrise on your head. Heck, Storm and Jet I've seen get even worse stuff, and they still fly, although Storm rides a board like he's got a brain tumor or something. If it wasn't for me, the whole band would be chaos."

Wave would say things of a similar nature off and on, and Tails pretended he listened. He didn't care for Wave all that much since it seemed that the cocky bird was quick to knock dents into anything Tails made. He remembered that day that Wave flat-out insulted the Blue Star Gear that Tails made for Sonic during the Babylon Races that Robotnik had last summer. He felt mad and sad at such an insult, but he knew that Wave was a pro at manufacturing and maintaining Extreme Gear, but did she have to shove it into his face like that?

Wave on the other hand, in-between her steady stream of chirpings (which wasn't that big of a space), thought about Tails. The kid, even though nearly half her age, was a pretty sharp tack for mechanics. Sure, he needed help sometimes in Extreme Gear, but she secretly admired how Sonic's airboard, the Blue Star II turned out. Even the first blue Star wasn't half-bad, but she didn't let on. She liked the kid, but she was far from telling him or anyone that...

Tails returned to the fixing the Cyclone, secretly marveled that everything was still workable, despite what it had been through scare hours before. Wave's chirpings grew quiet (which was a relief for Tails) as the sun sank lower in the sky.

Meanwhile, on the rim bridges surrounding the city, two specks, one green and one blue were racing each other down the pavement. On closer inspection, it was Jet and Sonic racing on airboard. Jet was on his Jetstream (that was the name given his airboard) and Sonic was riding a gear that none of the rogues used. It was named the Wind Access, and it was shaped vaguely like a triangle, and it was a cream-color with light green and blue highlights. It was a lot lighter then Sonic's Blue Star II and at one jump, Sonic was nearly sent off the racetrack because he went a lot higher then he ever did.

"Hey, Jet, are you hungry!?" Sonic called.

"Hungry?" Jet shouted back, eyes on the road.

"Yeah, 'cause you're about to eat my dust!" Sonic yelled, and accelerated quickly. Jet fell behind by 50 yards, but he wasn't the leader of the Babylon Rogues for nothing. He accelerated and took the inside to cut the distance in the turns. He diminished the lead Sonic held to only 5 yards.

A jump came up ahead, and both racers hit it in nearly the same second. Sonic whooped and laughed as his Wind Access carried him high. Jet spun his board about as he ascended to create a helicopter look to rebalance for the landing.

Sonic took the landing a little roughly, grunting on impact, giving Jet the chance to cut short the last final yards. Again, the two were neck and neck.

"Ha! Goal!" Sonic shouted as he flew under a canopy (which was declared as the finish line earlier). "I win!"

"Hey, don't grab the gold yet! I crossed over first!" Jet interjected.

"Yeah right. I was a good yard ahead. Don't get your feathers all ruffled, pal..."

"I won, fair and square..."

The two continued to argue unabated. Wave and Tails couldn't help but watch and smile. It was a good hour past sunset before Tails decided to get back to the mission.

"Uh, Sonic?" Tails finally cut in, after the sun was just about gone in the west. "Shouldn't we be going now?"

Sonic and Jet stopped arguing to peer at the fox, half-considering to continue, but Sonic did notice that it was already dark and that time was of the essence. Mentally kicking himself for wasting time, he turned back to Jet. "I'd love to continue proving my point, but Tails and I gotta juice. Eggman's about to launch--" Sonic made quotation marks with his fingers. "'the ultimate weapon' and I'm not about to sit on my tail to watch it happen."

Jet grunted. "When you get done, we're having a rematch, got it?" Jet pointed at Sonic backhandedly, emphasizing his statement.

"It's a match then...how's the Cyclone, Tails?"

"It's still a little battered, but if we can get back to Santiago City, I might have time to fix it better, but it can fly."

"Cool; let's fly..." Sonic gave a thumbs-up.

"Shame you boys have to leave so soon..." Wave said, winking.

"And what? Pay the obnoxious rent? No thanks..."

Jet knew that Sonic was being cheeky, but felt obliged to feel mildly insulted.

Tails hopped aboard the Cyclone, and made the adjustments to transform into the Tornado plane. As it transformed, Tails listened to the sounds it made as it did, mildly wincing at the creak and loud clicks that came out once in a while, but it was uneventful. The kitsune activated the plane and let it run for a while.

"Sounds all right to me, kid..." Sonic said.

"I guess..." Tails felt a little nervous flying a battered plane in the middle of nowhere, but they technically had no choice.

"Catchya later, Jet..." Sonic said.

"Till next time..." Jet replied.

The Tornado labouringly advanced forward, but soon was running without much of a problem down the straightway. The plane soon lifted off from the ground and Tails turned it to the west towards the coast and towards Santiago City.

"Well, they seemed better then last time..." Sonic wistfully said, riding the wings of the Tornado.

"Yeah..." Tails mumbled half-heartedly.

"What's up?"

Tails involuntarily jumped; he thought his mumbling would go unheard, but he didn't account on Sonic trying to start a conversation. "Uh...nothing."

"C'mon, kid..." Sonic turned around and was practically leaning in Tails' face. "I can tell when there's something on your mind. I've been with you for years; don't think I can't tell..."

_No way of avoiding it, I guess_, Tails thought. "Well, they didn't seem any better to me."

"Really? Jet wasn't such a AA-jerk this time."

"But Wave was."

"She was?" Sonic felt anger kindle. "What she say?"

"I didn't mean she said something just a little bit ago; it was during the race..."

"You mean when she dissed ya before the race at the river?"

"Yeah..." Tails felt the sadness and anger rekindle, the same he felt the last summer at the Babylon Races.

"And you still feel that? Wow..." Sonic whistled. "I never knew you to hold a grudge..."

"It would be like if you won a big race, and then someone showed it in your face that you didn't. Every time I see her, I always think of what she said..."

The voice once again echoed through Tails' mind: _I never thought anyone would stoop to racing with such a piece of junk!_

"Gee, Tails, I didn't know..."

Tails wiped his nose with the back of his glove, sniffing a little. "I just don't like her. Back there earlier, she just kept jabbering about what would happen to the Babylon Rogues if she wasn't there. She hasn't changed..."

Sonic looked at Tails for a long time. He always saw Tails as the kid where things rarely got him down. He never thought of him to hold a grudge like that. That thought immediately led him to Shadow. He held a grudge for so long against humankind, and nearly destroyed the planet with it, but in the end, he forgave them.

Sure, it's seems easier to be angry and get revenge, but it seems that in the end, it leads to pain and suffering...

Just like Tails was feeling right now.

This revelation felt very weird, as Sonic would say later. It was like sitting in a dark room, and suddenly, a flashlight lit up and you found something in the room that seemed worthless before.

"Well, uh, Tails. I don't know what to say..."

Tails looked down.

Sonic thought about what he would say carefully so as not to push Tails over the edge. "Tails...remember the ARK, and Shadow?"

Tails looked up again.

"Remember that Shadow held a big grudge against the Overlanders because of Maria? He spent his life stewing up for revenge, and it made him such a cruel jerk until nobody could stand him. It was like you could feel the hate coming off of him, even if it wasn't at you in particular.

"But when he and I went to fight the Biolizard outside the ARK, he changed. His manner was the same (I guess being angry for so long gives you an attitude) but I could tell that the hate was gone.

"Maybe that's what you need to do. Maybe...you should let it go..."

Tails looked down for a long time, staring distantly at the gauges on the control board. When he looked up, Sonic thought he saw tears, but he didn't say anything.

"It's so hard...what she said..."

"Yeah, I know, buddy. But there's one thing you have over Shadow back on the ARK..."

"What's that?" Tails asked, sniffling a little.

"You have a friend who can help you out..."

Tails was touched. He wondered in that brief moment of silence between the two a few minutes before what Sonic was thinking about. It didn't matter, for Sonic just said something really important. Sonic was willing to help him through the "letting go," the forgiveness.

"Thanks, Sonic..." Tails replied, slightly choked.

The rest of the trip was no longer dreary or despondent for either the hedgehog, kitsune or the sleeping chao in the back seat, oblivious to what had happened.

- - - - -

It was closing on midnight in Sapphire City, and nary a soul was awake and trotting on the dark night. Vapors of heat began to dwindle in the late summer night. A lone stray cat seemed to be the only creature braving the night, hunting for its next meal.

At that moment, a bright flash of light seemed to shatter the darkness surrounding. The confused and frightened feline darted for cover and watched as the light was pulsing, and seemed to be spitting up silhouettes of something unknown and possibly dangerous.

It was in fact a portal, but not one leading to another time or world, but somewhere much more familiar. The light faded and all that was left of the event were five shadows of varying creatures, two reptilian, one flying insect and two mammalian.

"Dang, it's dark out here..." Vector sighed, squinting in the darkness.

"It's almost midnight, duh," Mighty reacted. "If it was light, then there'd be something wrong..."

Vector sighed in indignation towards the armadillo.

"Knock it off," warned Knuckles. "You blockheads perfectly know we'll accomplish nothing if we just sit here. Let make for the power plant, then we'll go back to Angel Island. Sound all right?"

The rest of the Chaotix grunted in agreement.

"I could go back to the Island right now!" Charmy said, yawning afterwards. "Bed sounds like an even better place."

"Please, don't mention 'bed,'" Espio said, who was bushed and in a surly mood.

"There it is!" Mighty said, pointing to a collection of high buildings, some belching out dark clouds of smoke.

"Gosh, those global warming freaks must hate this place with a fury..." Vector comment dryly, and be continued. "I'm sure the front entrance is closer to the street. Let's go around it until we find the front gates."

The troupe began to march. The whole plant was surrounded with a 10-ft. fence with signs reading "Warning! Polaris Plant Property is owned by the G.U.N. Federation. Trespassing is prohibited. Any violaters are subject to be shot."

"Friendly place..." Espio breathed.

"Here we are." Mighty pointed to a gate where behind it stood two human guards with semi-automatic weapons.

"Never would confuse this place with a daycare center, heh?" Charmy said, stifling a laugh.

The Chaotix stepped up to the gate, and when they got within three feet of it, the guards turned abruptly alarmed, pointed their guns at the five, and one of them barked, "What is your business here!?"

The Chaotix collectively jumped involuntarily; it wasn't a pleasant experience to have guns pointed at you after all. "We are the Chaotix Detectives. We were sent to pick up something for our Client."

The guard picked up a walkie-talkie, spoke into it, then turned back to the five. "I need to see some authorization."

The Chaotix whipped out small pocketbooks, and handed them to the guard. There was a pause, more talking on the talkie; then the guard nodded, handing them back the pocketbooks which contained their detective licenses and the gate slid open.

"Sergeant Reeves will take you to the Major in charge of security here. He'll in turn take you to the man you need to see." The scruffy corporal said to the Chaotix, motioning to a tall, broad-shouldered human whose flesh was darker then the night itself it seemed.

The human led the Chaotix into the power plant. It was clean inside and had an orderly look to it. The next person they met was a Caucasian-man who had a no-nonsense look about him. The Chaotix thought it prudent not to start small talk with him.

The trek through the power plant led from one corridor to another, and soon, the atmosphere began to reek of working machinery and chemicals. They passed several view windows which showed several laboratories, and in several of those sat large vats full of a dull-grey mass that seemed to stir and move and bubble.

As they continued forward, Espio espied a door adjacent to one of the view windows slightly open. It seemed to lead to one of the labs containing the "strange silver goop."

Bitten by the curiosity bug, he blended into the blue walls and slithered down the halls silently, being careful not to let the metal stairs leading downwards betray his presence. He found the end of the flight of stairs and was slightly disappointed at his discovery: a room with more observation windows and several desks with computers. He was hoping it lead into the lab itself.

But wait, one of the computers was on. He took a good look around the room, then advanced towards the glowing monitor. There was nothing much on except a window asking for a password.

_Dang it!_ thought Espio, then he looked at the desk in frustration, and saw a strange slip of paper sticking out from underneath the keyboard. His thin fingers snatched up the paper and his yellow eyes flew over it.

"The nautilus is a mollusk of the sea that makes its home in a multi-layered shell, which continues to grow as it continues to live in it. Native of the planet Earth. Its diet consists mostly of..."

Espio stopped and nearly crumpled up the paper in disgust. What was this piece of trash laying here for!? He was about to tear it into shreds, which his eyes fell on the word "nautilus" again. Wait...why was it underlined? He looked at the word, then at the computer monitor, then at the word again. Could it be possible?

He typed the word "nautilus" into the password box and pressed enter. To his amazement, it let him pass! The windows coming in seemed to be filled with formulas, scientific and technical journals, data sheets...all under the name "Project: Nautilus."

He figured it was a strange name for a project, but as he read the data sheets, more started to make sense. The project it seemed was to make new attack machines that had the ability to repair themselves in battle. How? The metal alloys would consist of nanites, microscopic robots that were very similar to biological cells. The nanites would be lined up in tissue-like order and be built in layers...much like a nautilus shell.

Espio pondered this new found fact for a brief time. If this lab was devoted to this top secret project, then that silver goop was...

The chameleon immediately realized how much time he may have spent down here. He shut down the computer, took off out the door and into the direction of his friends, still camouflaged. He found them a good 300 feet from where he left them and dropped his guise, and said nothing. He would tell them about this in due time. He could imagine the danger if someone else found out about this project...especially Eggman.

Despite his name, he shows to be the most intelligent scientist in the machine realm. If it wasn't for his diabolical plan for world domination, who knows how far the world would be advanced?

The major ahead of them stopped and motioned them through a door. When all of them had filed in, the officer shut the door behind them. The five looked and saw a desk, and sitting behind it was an older man whose attention was currently taken by what looked to the Chaotix like a cross between a syringe and a thermos, filled with a clear liquid. Espio's eyes focused on it for a time.

The human looked up from the canister and regarded the Chaotix. "Ah, you are the Chaotix. I've been expecting you..."

The words sounded unsettling, but logically no one could figure any menacing thought behind this man's eyes. Vector replied. "Yes, our Client sent us to you to retrieve an item."

The human leaned back in the chair. "The item in question is in fact not an item at all..."

The Chaotix looked puzzled.

"Indeed, not one single item, not a unit. It's more then one, not even a small petty group, but an entire life-force by itself."

The Chaotix felt as if someone turned in the heater in their faces. What kind of madman was this!?

The human with gloved hands reached for a large case the size of a very large book. To the group's horror, it was marked with the ever-recognizable biohazard sign. The man opened it and reached in, and withdrew a canister very similar to the one he had been studying, except this one had the thick, silver goop they had seen before, but among the five, only one knew.

The human held both canisters in his hand and lifted them off the desk a short height. "Do any of know what these canisters contain?"

None answered.

"I thought not. You may not know what it is exactly, but surely you have had...an acquaintance to these lifeforms. This one..." he held up the clear one. "contains a host of bacteria, more specifically the meningococci, the bacteria known to cause the highly contagious disease known as meningitis, a brain-tissue disease.

"Of course, the bacteria in here are weak. For safety reasons, we couldn't use healthy meningococci for experimentation, otherwise, most of us would be bleeding through the ears before now. But just the same, to sue them, we had to feed them with cloned meninges cells, outer-brain tissue cells, more specifically from a lab rat.

"The reason we chose to host these vile bacteria is because of its diet of meninges tissues, it has had much exposure to nerve and brain tissue impulses. Which lead us to our next experiment: impregnating their diet with a virus made of machines. The theory was is when the virus was devoured by the bacterium, it would latch onto the nucleus and remain there, until it was ordered via computer what to do.

"This was did in success and instead of the clear liquid containing the meningococci, we have this:" the man lifted the grey goop canister. "bacteria impregnated with computer virus, a bio-mechanical bacteria. Our first bio-nanite."

Espio was wondering why he was practically giving the Nautilus Project away, but as he noticed the professor's general posture, he noticed with alarm it was rather pointedly in his direction. Could he have found out he had hacked the mainframe of the plant?

"It was in the third year of our development when your Client contacted us about a request with payment just over a fortnight ago. He needed something that was made of our nanites, contained in a pod-like containment for use. We at first were alarmed, but when he told us that it was intended to be used against the Dr. Robotnik, who we have always feared, for this project may catch his interest if revealed. This Client may give us the chance to test the use of nanites against the madman.

"And that's where you come in. Take these nanites to your Client in this sealed case. He paid a lot to us for the staff here to release them to him." The human put the canister of the silver goop in, closed the case and latched it. He picked it up and placed it in Vector's hands, but not without looking Vector in the eyes with a serious and foreboding expression. "Do not drop it."

Several minutes later found the concerned and not to mention disturbed group being lead outside of the factory and through the front gate.

Once out the gate, Knuckles hissed "Not a word until we get back to Angel Island" and lead the group to a secluded part deep in the shadows. All waited in silence thinking dark thoughts about the case as Knuckles set up the teleporter. A slight breeze whipped up the street, feeling cold and empty. It gave the Chaotix the creeps...

After what seemed like hours, the Chaotix teleported back to the relatively safe and hospitable Angel Island. They had beamed into a dark alleyway just behind the office building complex that housed the Chaotix main office. Silently, they trouped up the back stairwell, through the back door on the third story closing the door behind them and turned on the lights.

All five sat in the main room in a circle, and fear and concern were spelled out on everyone's faces.

"Guys...I think we bit off more then we could ever chew..." Knuckles said.

Everyone side-eyed each other in the room.

"I'm beginning to wonder what our Client is really wanting these for..." Espio finally breathed.

"That professor said that it was going to be used on Eggman..." Charmy began.

"Yes, but what if that should fail?" Mighty said. "If Eggman gets a hold of those nanites, the world is doomed. You heard what they used to create them: LIVE bacteria, brain-tissue-eating bacteria! I've heard of bacterial meningitis. You know what it does? It slowly eats away at the outer layer of the brain, causing spiking fevers, chills, bleeding in the ears, and not to mention that it's also one of the most contagious diseases known to life. And they are impregnated with virus-like machines! The bacteria were bad enough, but they could be killed. Who knows if the viral machines enhance their ability to resist meds!?"

"He's right," Knuckles said. "By taking this to the Client, we all signed an oral contract to the world, taking responsibility if there is a pandemic of this disease later in history."

The resulting silence was only matched by a tomb. They could be part of a plot for biological warfare.

"Hey, did we even look in the other package? Do you think it could have something to do with this...stuff?" Charmy asked.

The others looked at him astonished, not at the bee in particular, but at themselves for forgetting about the previous package. Mighty wordlessly scooped up the manila colored package, worked it open, and being mindful not to rip the package itself. He slipped a hand in and pulled out a plastic case as thick as a cantaloupe and as wide as a dictionary. The armadillo worked it open and looked at its contents. In the plush and cushioning of the Styrofoam sat an assortment of tubes, metal shapes and one large hollow metal ball that caught the attention of the mammal itself. It was solid with only a large hole the size of a half-dollar on the bottom. The outer-surface was covered in small circuit-boards, wires and more tech.

"It looks like a glorified bowling ball," Mighty said, as the rest came up and looked at the contents of the case.

"Bam!" Charmy exclaimed. "I've never seen stuff so weird..."

"Look at the hole at the bottom. And entryway perhaps?" Knuckles speculated.

"What does this thing have to do with those nanites?" Vector asked, echoing the very same thoughts of everyone else.

Espio looked at the ball, then at the metal case marked biohazard lying flat on the floor, then at the ball.

"What if this hole is not an entryway? What if it's an exit? Some of those tubes are large enough to attach to the hole. What if the nanites belong in this ball-thing and are supposed to go out through the hole?"

"For what?" asked Mighty.

Silence once again noised throughout the room as each of the Chaotix looked at each other, thinking of the possibilities, and considering the few they came up whether were of questionable legality or not.

"Guys..." Knuckles began. "I think we have ourselves a mad scientist..."

"I'm giving our Client a call first thing in the morning..." Vector said sternly.

- - - - -

Shadow woke up to feeling hot and sweaty. Crawling up, he felt his muscles burn. What was going on? He never felt this way before...or that he could remember.

Another thing he noticed was that it was nearly completely dark. He could've sworn that they had a fire burning in the middle of the cave.

He felt his way around the darkness until he found the light, which was coming from the Violet Chaos Emerald. Pulling it out, he lifted it over his head to see around. Yes, there was Omega, standing up but inactive, but Shadow could see that he was deactivated in a pre-attack posture. Shadow snorted; it seemed that robot could think of nothing else but war and fighting. Looking around even more, he found Rouge. He was surprised to see her glistening in the light of the Emerald.

Were they ill? Shadow couldn't figure out what was going on. He coughed in the hot air. Maybe they were. Maybe he should get some fresh air. Deciding so, he turned to what he thought was the entrance to the cave...but found nothing but rock.

What happened? Shadow thought, feeling the rock with his gloved hands. Wait...it wasn't rock, it was snow, frozen into a solid wall of ice!

Then, the pieces fell together. The darkness, the stuffiness, yes there was a winter storm last night...they were snowed in, and nearly dead of suffocation!

Shadow powered all the energy he could muster from the Chaos Emerald and let it out with a yell, throwing the arm with the Emerald forward.

"Chaos...SPEAR!!"

A purple lightning bolt flew out of his fist and struck the wall of ice with a crack of thunder. Pieces of ice flew everywhere, and Shadow had to shield his face from the sharp debris.

Rouge had awoken and found Shadow standing in front of the mouth of the cave, clutching the Chaos Emerald.

"What's wrong, Shadow?" Rouge said, panting. Why was it so hot and stuffy in here?

Shadow hissed, "Don't speak." He charged another Chaos Spear and blasted it against the ice.

Omega had reactivated, but being a robot, he had no need of oxygen so the current predicament was dealing more with getting out then getting out on time.

Shadow stood back, clutching the Emerald with both hands. He forced to concentrate on the strongest power within the Emerald. He was absorbing so much power, that his normally ebony fur was glowing purplish, but Shadow didn't notice. They were about to die unless he did something quickly.

Trembling under the intense power of the Chaos Emerald he had absorbed, he released with almost at a screech.

"Chaos...SURGE!!"

Shadow's fur poured out electrical bolts at such power that he was thrown back against the wall, but the surge bored through the ice and blasted the ice wall out. There was an enormous crack of thunder that seemed to shatter the mountain, and a rush of ice cold wind that seemed to be sucked into the cave. The air was balancing, counteracting the hot, old air, replacing it with cold, fresh air, which was very welcome.

Omega stepped out and scanned the area, and detected a seismic abnormality from higher up the slopes. It was too weak to be an earthquake, and this region was not a seismic point of upheaval. That could only leave one thing...

Omega rushed back in. "Rouge, sensors indicate an avalanche from higher up the slopes. If we intend on surviving and completing our mission, we must evacuate."

Rouge was already up on her feet at the word "higher." Rouge looked at Shadow, who was still out and was still holding the Chaos Emerald for dear life. "Omega, retrieve Shadow and let's get out of here!"

"Affirmative."

Omega picked up the unconscious hedgehog, and Rouge took the Emerald, stuffing it into her pack. Omega stomped out and activated his jets, lifting into the sky. Rouge was close behind, flapping her membrane-cloaked wings as much as she could make them. They could've died in that cave, and she didn't want to take a second chance with a snowy landslide.

Omega found a rocky outcrop to land on, high above on another mountain so there was no risk of losing his flight above an avalanche. Rouge landed just a few seconds later, and both turned to watch what was probably the most beautiful and most awful act of destruction known to life.

A white wall of snow was pouring down over the mountain face, and seemed to grow bigger and bigger as it continued on its holy charge. Rouge's breath was taken away at the destruction as large cedar trees that she always thought to be rock solid were simply snapped in two.

"Rouge, Shadow has awaken." Omega turned to the bat, his inner machinery making noises as he turned.

The white bat turned back to see Shadow propping himself up on his hands and knees. He seemed to be dazed.

"Shadow?"

Shadow struggled to get up, for he felt as if someone stuck a vacuum into his head and sucked out everything inside. "Wha...what...happened?"

"You blasted the wall out with the Chaos Emerald, but in turn, it threw you into the opposite wall. We had to get out because there was an avalanche."

Shadow tried to stand up, but couldn't without his knees knocking. Rouge caught him around the back. Shadow breathed in, partly from falling down and partly reacting from Rouge's touch; he found it a little irritating.

"Give me the Chaos Emerald. I shall use its energy to revive myself."

Rouge sighed (she knew Shadow was a proud one and found taking help a weakness) and gave the hedgehog the Emerald. Instantly, Shadow was able to find the strength to stand up. "Ah, I can feel the power swelling up inside me..."

Shadow was on his feet and looked ready to face the twice-accursed mountain range.

"We must continue north to find the Chaos Emerald. Without them, our quest to destroy Dr. Robotnik will fail. Come!"

"I am certain I can destroy him without the assistance of the Chaos Emeralds," Omega boasted.

"And you do not know the power of Chaos. When we have all seven, my true power will be unleashed. Then, I shall destroy him."

"If I reach Dr. Robotnik first, I shall destroy him. Do you comply?"

Shadow snorted in indignation, and Rouge sighed. "Nothing's going to happen if you two boys will butt heads. Shadow, Omega, let's go. We have no time to lose."

Shadow and Omega stared at Rouge for a short second, then Shadow cast a glance at the robot that said "This isn't over yet." Omega seemed to receive the subliminal message clearly.

The trek continued forward through the snow. They traversed the region where the avalanche had poured through and the going was slow. Omega cursed the snow for slowing him down, and Shadow was hard put from sinking in the soft places of the snow.

The trek continued slow but relentless, until when the sun had risen to eye level and suddenly Omega stood stock still and his flat head swiveled back and forth.

Rouge noticed first. "Omega, what's wrong?"

"Radar has picked up possible enemies approaching from the south-west, behind us. Scans reveal them to be a group of predators. Recommended actions: battle or retreat. I recommend battle."

"You would," thought Shadow, but was curious of these predators himself. "Rouge, can you fight?"

Rouge looked at Shadow for a moment, then at Omega. "Can you make out complete biological details?"

"Negative. Species are unknown. Stand by for visual scans." Omega turned towards the south-west for a brief moment. "Visual scans provide reptilian creatures with large hind legs and small fore legs, possibly not used for transportation. Size approximately 45" at the shoulder. Weight is approximately 90 lbs. Predator activity is increasing, approaching hostile. They appear to be attacking."

"We must fight then. Rouge, can you fight?" Shadow asked again.

"I have pulse laser blasters, but I doubt they'll be much good besides making them hurt slightly. You two may need to do the dirty work."

"Battlestations. 12 predators closing in on 200 meters at a heading of 223 degrees."

Shadow jumped onto Omega's shoulders to get a look at the creatures. Yes, they were reptilian with several horns on the head, possibly used for skewering prey. They seemed agile in the snow and looked unnaturally hideous and ferocious.

The first of the reptiles charged at the three. Shadow leapt off of the robot's shoulder and dashed into the face of the creature in a ball of spines. The beast snarled and flew backwards down the slope. Another beast charged, maw open and Shadow could see its teeth. Omega had charged already and rammed his claws through the back of the creature. The creature roared in pain and an awful noise it was. Omega tossed the creature aside, and charged at another one.

Rouge had taken flight and fired a few shots down at the creatures. Oh, they were ugly, and seemed to not mind Rouge's shots. Shadow was having more success with the Chaos Spear; he flung the lightning bolt down the maw of a charging beast and had leapt aside. The beast flung to the ground, writhing in agony. Shadow would've killed it, but he was thrown off track by another beast he had to avoid.

The several that remained were edging closer, rethinking their hunting strategy. All their prey were easy to take down, but these were proving to be more of a challenge, especially that large, ugly one. He seemed to have flesh of steel. One of the beasts had bitten down on the arm, only to be slung down to the ground and lay dead, neck broken.

They decided to charge at once, overwhelming with strength and numbers. At least one of them had to go down.

Six charged at once, and Shadow leapt in the air and dashed right into the back of one, throwing it off balance. On the bounce back, the hedgehog dove right into another. No one challenges the ultimate lifeform and lives!

Omega, despite his superior size and strength was less agile. He had decided to use bullets, but when one charged, it dove into his iron torso with its sharp horn. It didn't breech the armor, but it did knock him down. Several of the beasts circled around him, intending to make a quick dinner of him. Omega fought to regain his balance and to protect his eyes from the tooth and claw, when the most unexpected thing happened.

Five of the beasts had Omega surrounded. Rouge's weapons were too weak to do anything, and Shadow was busy dealing with four others. So, only Rouge saw when a ballistic missile flew seemingly from nowhere and smashed into one of the beasts. The unfortunate creature was reduced to smoldering gore, smoking from the explosion. The beasts retreated a distance, sniffing the air for a new enemy.

Rouge was looking around too, and saw something that looked like from her distance and black vulture, peering over the rock. But when Rouge dived closer, she saw it was someone in a pitch-black suit with purple "some things" that looked like serrated layers. He wore a black helmet with a glowing red visor, looking ferocious. The other distinctive marking was an enormous weapon that looked like a cannon. Did he fire that powerful missile?

The black thing leapt down from its perch and fired what looked like a purple ball of energy into a beast, then following it up with something else like a missile that blew the creature's head off.

More and more fell against Shadow and the stranger, but more the stranger then Shadow, for after felling two, Shadow had noticed the newcomer defeating the creatures with such ease that there were not many left.

The few creatures that were left panicked and ran. They never had to fight this much for a meal.

The black-clad stranger turned back to the three, just as Omega was climbing up. "Is everyone all right?" A deep, serious voice affected by the visor's synthesizing said.

"Minimal damage received." Omega replied. "Who are you?"

Shadow was suspicious of this newcomer. "Yes, who are you?"

In response, the stranger pulled off his helmet with his un-holstered hand, revealing a human face. He had dark hair, and an expression showing he has seen many wars, also hinted by a thin scar on the left side of his face, but what caught Rouge's and Shadow's attention was the eyes. They were a golden-yellow color. Typically, human eyes were either blue, brown, grey or green, with variations within each color.

"You are a human?" Shadow stated.

The human glanced at the hedgehog, more then half his height. "Do I seem otherwise?"

Shadow did not answer, his currently unexplained grudge against humans beginning to mount, but Rouge asked. "Well, there is one thing...your eyes. No human has those eyes. I haven't even seen many Möbians with those eyes if any..."

The human regarded the bat for a moment. "What are you doing in this wasteland? The Black Mountains are not to be trodden lightly," the man answered, avoiding the question and motioning to a nearby corpse of a beast.

"Tell us who you are..." Shadow demanded.

The human and the hedgehog locked eyes. Both sensed an inner hostility of each other; Shadow against humans, and the human against Shadow for some reason.

"I am only known as Viper. My business here is none of yours..."

"And by that logic, our business is none of yours." Shadow responded.

"Not many have trodden this place and have lived to tell about it, if they get past the traugans, they die in the earthquakes."

"Correction: this geographical area is not a seismic area of upheaval according to normal techtonic plate motion," Omega replied.

"Yes, but there are other reasons that caused earthquakes, from the normal breaking of rock to create volcanoes to more sinister..."

"And you mean?" Shadow answered.

The man, Viper, glanced at Shadow, considering to reply, when a high-pitched roar echoed through the range.

"More traugans," Viper explained. "Despite the fact they are cowards when they have to fight, they tend to return with more. Come."

"Wait, you want us to go with you?" Rouge asked, surprised.

"Would you rather stay and be a meal to six different traugans? Come. We must talk..."

"We're not going until you tell us why you are here!" Shadow said, angrily.

The human paused, slipped on his black helmet, and replied. "Come, we'll talk more in a safer haven."

The human walked away to the northwest, and after sometime, Rouge and Omega followed after. Shadow was more stubborn and didn't give until some strange instinct pricked him to follow after Viper.

"I do not trust this human, but I seem to have no choice..." Shadow grunted and stepped after the human, robot and bat through the wasteland.


	6. Chapter 6: Deeper Outlook

**Chapter 6: Deeper Outlook**  
--

_Wednesday morning  
3 days remain..._

"Augh! I hate this jungle!" Cream exclaimed, after falling into the mud. Cheese presented his own complaints.

"Why?" Big asked, sounding clueless to what just happened. "It's a pretty place."

"You're just going to have to tough it out, Cream," Amy replied, wiping off moss from her dress. She didn't enjoy this either, but she imagined that it would be worse if they actually got to the place where Froggy was being kept...where ever it was.

"Where are we anyway?"

Big, usually quiet, spoke up. "The Frog Forest. I found Froggy here..."

"Where are all the frogs?" Amy asked.

"Hiding. They are afraid of strangers..."

Amy had just whacked a branch out of the way with her hammer, and squeaked. There in front of her was the biggest green frog she ever laid eyes on. The frog looked up from her squeak, then hopped away, croaking in fright.

All of the sudden, it started getting darker. Thunder started rumbling through the canopy above, and drops started falling from the trees.

Cream and Amy dashed for cover, while Big took his time.

"Whoa, that storm came up fast!" Cheese exclaimed. Thunder rumbled above, causing the poor chao to cover his ears.

"If I didn't know better, I'd think that frog called it up or something..." Amy said.

"He did." Big sat down under the huge leaves of a nearby tropical bush.

Cream, Cheese and Amy stared surprised at the obese cat. Amy spoke first. "But that's impossible! They're just frogs! How can frogs summon rain!?"

Big shrugged. "It happens a lot here. When I found Froggy for the first time, he ran away too, croaking a lot. Every time he croaked, the rain poured. I don't know how he does it. He don't talk so he don't tell me."

The hedgehog was still feeling like the whole thing was a coincidence, but thinking about it, different things she had seen sounded just as silly if not unbelievable.

Almost as quickly as the rain had started, it stopped. Sunshine once again poured through the breaks of the canopy. The humidity began to rise again and the insects began singing.

Big remained seated. The conversation reminded him of Froggy again and it saddened him. If only he had kept that lucky charm. This all wouldn't have happened.

Amy picked up her hammer, brushed her wet bangs from her face and strode forward. "I was thinking. This jungle has the base of Dr. Eggman in it. If something bad happened, he would have something to do with it. As far as I'm concerned, I'm not letting him get away with it!"

"Dr. Eggman?" Big asked. That named sounded familiar...

"He's always caused problems with everyone. Sooner or later, he's going to be in jail for a long time and I want to be there to see it happen."

Big pondered the name. Eggman. Funny name, but he swore he had heard it before. He wished he was just a little smarter.

Cream and Cheese crept out of their hiding place, dripping some. "Did you say Dr. Eggman? That bad man who nearly destroyed the world?"

"One and the same. He's a maniac out to rule the world. Just between you and me, that buffoon couldn't rule his own house. Just the same, he's a nuisance and I betcha he has Froggy. Don't have a clue why, but he's Eggman. He doesn't need a reason to cause trouble. C'mon!"

Amy slung the hammer over her shoulder and marched into the jungle. Cream followed half a second later with Cheese fluttering behind. Big took his time to get up and trained soon after...

Eggman...he knew that name...and for some reason, he knew it meant something bad...even without Amy's speech on the subject. But who was he...and why did he intimidate Big so?

- - - - -

Sonic sat up and stretched. Wincing, he realized that the fall he had yesterday in the desert was hurting worse today then it was when it actually happened. For a second, he idly wondered why that is. Shrugging and shaking away the sleepy cobwebs inside his head, he gazed out the window towards a brightening morning sky. Where were they again? Oh, yeah! They flew back to Santiago City over the night and are at the hotel on the other side of town from Casino Park.

He looked back at Tails and saw he was still fast asleep, and could see the bloodstained gauze still tightly wrapped about his head. Sonic made a mental note to tell Tails to change the bandage, and hoped that the wound wasn't nearly as grizzly as it appeared back in the collapsed cavern.

Glancing at the foot of his bed, he saw the blue Sonic-chao Dash still curled in the blankets of his bead. Dash was still sleeping in the shoebox makeshift bed and from the looks of it wasn't about to stir anytime soon.

Sonic picked up his soap-shoes and tiptoed out of the hotel room, not wanting to wake up the other two; they had a rough day yesterday. Sonic winced mentally; he especially didn't want to bother Tails. He must've been devastated when he heard Mecha kidnap Frosty and one of the Chaos Emeralds. Why did he did do that anyway? This question tumbled through Sonic's mind as he slipped on the soaps, left the hotel and went on a morning run. This thought eventually tumbled into the email they got the previous afternoon.

Eggman had sent them a dare to stop him from setting off a super weapon against the world, although he didn't really specify it was a super weapon. Sonic guessed it still was a super weapon of some sort. Eggman always had some "ultimate weapon" he used. The Death Egg, Perfect Chaos, The Eclipse Cannon, yeah, it had to be some super weapon. It's was just Eggman's style.

But why on earth did Mecha kidnap Frosty as well as one of the Chaos Emeralds? What did she have to do with Eggman. He could see perfectly well how it would deal with the Chaos Emeralds, but there was still the one inside the Cyclone's engine compartment, and he was sure Mecha knew it was there. He had stolen the Yellow Emerald from there three years before back on the ARK.

Sonic leapt to the top of a building to get a breather and transferred his energy adding more rails to his train of thought to keep driving it. What if the email was a hoax of Metal-Sonic's and he just kidnapped the chao just to be a jerk? No, that just not Metal-Sonic's style. He may be a robot, but he has a personality, and Sonic knew that Mecha would rather go right after Sonic and rip his throat out then play games...unless...the email is not a hoax...and Mecha is after the Chaos Emeralds and is being sneaky about it. This revelation chilled Sonic's blood a bit. What if Eggman was really after the Emeralds and Metal-Sonic kidnapped Frosty as a distraction? That still didn't explain why Mecha took just the one Emerald and left the other...maybe his hands were full with Frosty and the White Emerald? Or maybe leaving the other Emerald was a way of saying he'd be back.

Sonic shook his head in dismay. Thinking this out made his head hurt; there was just too many unknowns to make a definite decision. He mildly began to wonder how in the world police detectives handle the stress in dealing with cases that have this much mystery to them.

Detectives! Sonic thought. Maybe he could get some brainpower elsewhere to help him out. Sonic knew that the Chaotix on Angel Island were now running a detective business; maybe he could give them a buzz and explain the whole thing.

Sonic dashed back to the hotel to find a phone. Once he found one, he inserted fifty cents (thank goodness he changed out his currency for the Overlanders' currency at the customs office when he and Tails came down here), dialed a number and waited. Hanging up the phone, his face registered a slight disappointment, with both the Chaotix and himself, more so the latter. He got an answering service stating that the Chaotix were closed for the night and would open up again at 8 AM. He was disappointed at himself because the day barely begun; he should've figured that the Chaotix wouldn't be up yet. Just the same, he left a message and hoped they weren't swamped with cases not to notice.

He trudged upstairs to his room again, and found that the morning run had kicked his metabolism into high gear and his stomach grumbled its desire to have supplement. He hoped that Tails had gotten up and ordered room service for them already.

The aroma of bacon, sausages, eggs and maple syrup met him in the middle of the hallway as he neared his room, and his stomach grumbled the harder. His mouth beginning to salivate, he entered the room. Surveying the room for the source of the aroma, he espied Tails sitting at the table near the window, enjoying a bacon and sausage platter, breaking once in a while to sip from a bottle of orange juice. Dash was sitting in front of the TV, once in a while taking bites from a Swiss cheese omelet, although Sonic could see Dash was more interested in what's up on the tube then breakfast, and Sonic smirked at this prospect.

Tails looked up and saw Sonic. "Hi, Sonic! Don't worry; I got you some breakfast. Dash thought you'd like the cheese omelet. It's on the nightstand."

"Thanks, bro!" Sonic looked and indeed there was a tin platter still covered sitting on the nightstand between the beds, and even though still enclosed, Sonic could just taste it right now. Scooping up the platter, a set of utensils and an apple juice packet, he dug in.

As he ate, he glanced at Tails and noticed an odd look on his face, and it took Sonic a second before he pinged what it was. He missed Frosty, and could tell as Tails didn't finish his sausage and bacon. Frosty usually always devoured (albeit however messy the spectacle) what Tails didn't eat. No doubt Tails wished Frosty was there...and it wasn't for so she would finish the dish. Tails loved Frosty as much as he did Sonic. Frosty must be feeling the same way...wherever she was.

With an inner pang, he thought of Dash. Three years before this month, Sonic was mistaken for Shadow and jailed; he never bothered to ask Dash how he felt when that happened.

_Dang it, hedgehog,_ Sonic thought to himself. _You might want to think about what other people feel more often. Maybe you'll learn some stuff._

The rest of the meal was slightly strained as Tails didn't really want to talk as he missed Frosty something fierce and Sonic didn't really want to talk because he felt like he would end up eating his foot dipped in crow sauce. The only one who didn't feel the tension was sitting at the end of a bed, sampling his dish and going bugger-eyed at the images flashing on the television screen.

As both the hedgehog and the fox ate wordlessly, the former began to feel that he had to feel something, and he didn't like the feeling as it squirmed like a worm in an apple core. Side-eyeing Tails, the feeling increased and was slowly cowing Sonic's conscience into submission. With a degree of difficulty, he finally said, "You miss Frosty loads, don't ya?"

Sonic barely said it aloud, but he saw that it registered as Tails hears flicked slightly, catching the question with his keen hearing. Tails looked up, his eyes were rimmed with tears.

"I...I just can't help the feeling that Frosty is being hurt..." Tails began, his voice cracking ever so slightly. "She's never been alone like that before...and she's locked up somewhere. I want to save her, but I don't know what to do."

Sonic gulped before replying; it took concentration to sound more confident then he really was. With Tails' worry on the verge of panic and this deal with Eggman, it's really heavy.

"Don't sweat it, Tails. We'll find her and when we do, I'll personally kick Mecha's butt into next year and back again. I've said it once and I'm saying it again. THAT is a promise." Sonic punctuated it with his trademark thumbs-up.

Tails felt his worry ebb a little bit; Sonic's enthusiasm was contagious. Sonic hasn't failed in keeping his promises, so this shouldn't be any different.

"Plus, I'm beginning to wonder if Mecha taking Frosty was more of a distraction then anything else..."

"What do you mean?" Tails asked, suddenly curious.

Sonic launched into his thoughts now voiced about the motives behind Eggman and Mecha, and things just did not match up. He mentioned the fact that Mecha left the other Emerald in the Cyclone behind and left behind Dash. It was there Sonic made a funny face, which Tails noticed. "What is it, Sonic?"

Sonic didn't answer Tails directly and turned to Dash, who hadn't moved during the entire conversation and before, almost zombie-like. If Sonic wasn't focused on asking a question, he would've cracked up. Stifling a chuckle, he tapped Dash on the forehead with his unused spoon. Dash snapped out of his TV-trance and rubbed his head, then looked at Sonic. "What?"

"Did you see where Mecha flew off to or where from when he attacked you and Frosty?"

Dash stiffened and completely forgot about the TV. The incident was still burned into his memory like a convict's brand. Fighting the nightmarish image of Metal-Sonic, he said. "I don't know. He just appeared in a flash, almost like he teleported or something!"

Sonic knew Dash was prone to exaggeration as he was himself, but "appeared in a flash" struck Sonic like a tuning fork. Teleporation? Could that possibly mean that Mecha...but he's just a robot...learned Chaos Control?

Tails felt that implication as well, but also knew well enough what Chaos Emeralds did to mechanics. He has been tinkering with Chaos-powered machines for years so this was second nature.

Sonic dug further. "Did Mecha actually grab the Emerald, or did Frosty have it the entire time."

"I don't know! I didn't see! I hid under the chair when I first saw him; I thought for sure he'd come after me as well!" Dash said, seeming to relive the whole ordeal.

Not enough information. Sonic moaned inside; he couldn't stand the sheer amount of mystery that seemed to boil over them like a thunderstorm. It was maddening.

"Maybe we should check out Eggman's base," Tails ventured.

Sonic looked back at the bi-tailed fox; that was an idea worth going for, but there was a problem. "Do we even know where Eggman's holed up?"

"There's that pyramid base in the Dagro Desert..."

"Not that much of a chance, kid. Eggman likes to vacate a base to start over. After all, why stay somewhere when he knows we know he's there?"

"Yeah," Tails agreed. "but I want to check out the computer mainframe. When we took back Robotropolis, we found that part of Eggman's computer mainframe was still intact. It wasn't much, but a lot of it was useful to the governments, both Möbian and Overlander, like the blueprints to the Egg Carrier. I want to see what Eggman might have left behind."

"That's a real brainwave, kid." Sonic flashed his usual grin. "You feel up to it?"

Tails stood up and looked determined. "Yes."

"Then hitch up the Tornado and let's hit the desert!"

Sonic scooped up Dash and took off out the door. Tails dove for the drawer and pulled out a sealed container. Opening it a crack, he looked inside and saw the tell-tale golden glow of the Yellow Chaos Emerald. Beside it was the fake Emerald he had created with Knuckles' help three years ago; it too was glowing, but not nearly as brightly. Despite being visually identical from facet to facet, he soon found that people could indeed tell the difference between the two. Plus, the fake Emerald would lose its power after about a day away from the real thing.

Tails carried the container carrying both Emeralds and took off out of the room, down the stairs, out the hotel and into the multi-story garage nearby the hotel. Sitting in car-mode (which Tails named the Typhoon-mode) in one space was the Tornado. Sonic was lounging on the tail fin, while Dash had taken refuge on the floor of the Tornado in the second seat behind the first. Sonic was grasping his Blue Chaos Emerald, but from time to time would toss it back and forth from one hand to the other.

"Yo, kid! What's in the box?"

"I took out the Emerald last night so nobody would steal it," Tails said, opening the box and taking out the real Emerald and placing it in the engine compartment.

Sonic eyed the fake Emerald in the box as well. "Brought that rock along, huh?"

"Yeah, it has to stay constantly charged to stay a working Emerald fake. If I let it decharge completely, I'd have to set up the whole charging apparatus again and charge it for hours."

Sonic shrugged, remembering the time Tails and Knuckles first charged up the Emerald, the night Eggman shot the Eclipse Cannon into the larger but barren of Möbius' two moons. Glancing at Tails again, he saw that Tails was busy hooking up the wires of the Chaos-energy converter to the insulated compartment that contained the Chaos Emerald. This process usually took several minutes as Tails would not take any changes and would triple-check the connections. One mistake and their plane could blow up from the EMP properties of the Chaos Emerald's power. Sonic didn't know this, but that was one of Tails' worst nightmares.

"Hey, Tails, don't you ever get tired of doing that? It looks like a real hastle."

Tails looked up from his work at Sonic for one second, then got back to work, but saying, "It is a bit annoying, but after Mecha took the Emerald right out of the converter back on the ARK, I don't want that happening again."

"Perhaps if you found a way to put the Emerald inside the cockpit, you won't have to go through the junk on taking it out and in all the time in such a tight space."

"Yeah, but it would be even more exposed."

"Couldn't you like install a locking canopy or something, like bulletproof glass?"

Sonic didn't know it, but Tails had actually been considering the same thing, at least about the canopy.

"That might be good, but I don't have any bulletproof glass or any substance hard enough to my liking."

"Hey, you're resourceful. You can always find something..."

Tails grinned and then plugged in the last wire of the converter. "Sonic? Could you turn on the Tornado? Watch the gauges; if any start closing in on the red, turn it off."

"Gotcha, chief." Sonic strode over the second seat and into the front seat. He studied the Tornado's control panels before doing anything; he knew how to fly a plane, but Tails had upgraded this thing so much that things have bound to have changed. He discovered that changes were minimal and everything was in relatively the same place as before Tails revamped it

Activating the Tornado, he kept a close eye on the gauges. For a few minutes, nothing happened and the gauges were steady.

"Looks great, kid!" Sonic said.

"How about fuel?" Tails asked from the side.

"More the three-fourths left. That should be enough, right?"

"Yep, now get back so I can get in."

Sonic bounded over the seat back into the second seat again. Tails vaulted into the first seat and began buckling in and putting on his flight goggles. In the meantime, Sonic saw that Dash had not moved from his underfoot refuge. Sonic called down to him, "Yo, Dash, with you down there I don't have that much leg room."

"Sorry."

The chao let the hedgehog pick the former up, and once he did, Sonic let his legs relax and spread out to take up the room.

"You okay?" Sonic ventured to ask.

"Yeah, I guess I didn't really get over yesterday. Now it feels so open."

"You'll be okay, buddy."

"I know, although that canopy idea sounds really good right now."

Sonic smirked. He could understand that feeling.

Tails had already strapped himself in and was about to put on the goggles, but decided to look back at first to see if Sonic was getting out to go on foot like he usually does. HE was surprised to see that Sonic was buckling himself in and Dash was on his lap.

"Sonic? You're not running there?"

"Ah, I've ran there before. It's not that exciting. The view this time should be spectacular."

Tails grinned. He actually liked it when Sonic was riding the plane. The Typhoon taxied out of the garage and onto a nearby freeway. Tails looked ahead and saw that there was no traffic in front and the road continued on straight.

"Sonic, I'm going to try to take off here."

"Sure thing!"

The Typhoon transformed into flight mode (Tornado) and began to accelerate to over one-hundred knots. The wind began tearing at the fur of Sonic and Tails forcing Sonic to squint, but Tails had his goggles on and did not need to squint. The airflow soon caused the plane to rise, catching the flow of air around the airfoil of the wings. Soon enough, the Tornado lifted off the pavement and gained altitude. Sonic watched as Santiago City faded behind, a really large city, gleaming under the rising sun.

Looking ahead, he mentally geared himself for crashing into Eggman's base once again. It was just like old times...

- - - - -

The mood was somber in the Chaotix Detective Agency.

None of the members had gotten too much sleep despite being bushed from the previous night's outing; all of them were disturbed beyond disturbed. Knuckles had taken it the hardest and spent all night brooding and smashing boulders to smithereens. Despite being sleep-deprived, none could shake the feeling of foreboding doom that settled upon them since last night at Polaris Power Plant in Sapphire City. Locked inside the refrigerator inside the lounge of the agency was a steel box, locked tight itself and inside that were five airtight-sealed glass vials containing bio-nanites, but these nanites were not just ordinary nanites; the nanites originated from a virulent form of meningococci, a brain-tissue eating bacteria, impregnated with a virus-like computer chip.

These plus so far one other were ordered by the Chaotix' client, and the Client had promised that there were three more items to get. Even though a payment of fifty thousand Möbiads was vowed upon completion, it no longer seemed worth it now. All of them felt like they were now caretakers of a biological weapon.

After the fretful night had subsided and the sun rose again, Knuckles, Vector, Charmy, Mighty and Espio found themselves sitting in the lounge. The atmosphere was tense and was further amplified by the lack on conversation. All their minds were on that steel box as thick as a dictionary.

This strained atmosphere went on for an undetermined amount of time, and was only disturbed by a rapping on the front door. The gloomy five snapped out of their brooding and Vector got up to answer the door. At the door stood a magenta-colored she-Echidna with roboticised fore-arms and various locks of her dreadlocks.

"Hey, guys. Your sign says you're closed."

"Hey, Julie!" Vector seemed to brighten at her presence. "What are you doing here?"

"Thought you guys might be hungry...," Julie-Su lifted some bags of food from a take-out breakfast restaurant.

Not a moment later, Julie-Su was brought into the lounge and the mood seemed to have flip-flopped for a time as the aroma of a hot breakfast infiltrated the noses and minds of the starving five. The group forgetting their brooding for a brief moment enjoyed their breakfast. The relief of the stress, however short, made the group chatty. Anyone looking in would have had no idea that anything was amiss.

Julie-Su on the other hand soon received an inkling that something was amiss. Even though the Chaotix and Knuckles looked like they were acting normally, they're was something about their eyes...

Diplomacy was not the way of the Echidnas for generations, so Julie-Su had no qualm in addressing her observations directly. "What on you boys' minds?"

Knuckles was in the middle of drinking down some ice water when Julie-Su out of the blue asked this question, and it surprised him so that he choked and spluttered. Coughing some, he looked at Julie-Su with a sobered expression. The Chaotix had heard this simple question as well and looked at the magenta Echidna. Just as soon as it had lifted, the dark wings of their moodiness began to descend upon them again.

Julie sensed an unusual amount of tension, and it felt like they were generally afraid of something. "Whoa, you guys suddenly buttoned up. It must be really serious."

Knuckles smiled despite himself; Julie was no fool, and idly wondered for a brief moment if she was either born with that or acquired her sense of perception from her time with the Dark Legion. "What tipped you off?"

Julie smiled back. For her, that was like asking if there was a moon in the sky. "I can read you like a book half-filled with pictures, Mr. Guardian. If there's one thing you've never been good at, it's keeping secrets from me."

The Chaotix saw a humor in this despite their worry, and had to bite their lips to keep from grinning like chimps. Knuckles' expression sobered them however as he seemed to be ready to crack. First of all, he looked at the Chaotix first. "Guys, do you think it's all right?"

Julie-Su saw the members of the Chaotix side-eye each other, and it took no genius that there was loads of information behind each glance.

The Chaotix had a self-policy that they wouldn't relinquish case information to an "outsider," but Knuckles was considered an unofficial member of the Chaotix, and it was no secret that Julie-Su was as close a girlfriend to Knuckles that could be possible. This made her kind of also an unofficial member of the Chaotix.

"Go ahead, Knuckles," Vector said finally.

Knuckles had to breathe a few times before starting, but once he got his bearings, he launched into an extended tale starting the previous afternoon with the Chaotix getting their mysterious call from their Client. He told her about him tagging along with the Chaotix and got to the Polaris Power Plant where the core of their fears was sitting just feet away in the locked refrigerator. Knuckles didn't actually say where they had it, but Knuckles' side-glance to the icebox was enough for Julie-Su.

"No wonder you guys are so glum! This is almost as scary as some of the stuff with the Dark Legion! Have you asked the Client about this?"

There was no response for some time; that thought had been crossing the minds of each of the others, but no one had acted upon it. A few minutes later, the two Echidnas and the Chaotix were sitting around the table surrounding the oddly-colored communicator that was sent to them by the Client. Knuckles and Julie-Su knew they shouldn't be the ones calling as they were not part of the agency. The task was left on the chameleon, the bee, the crocodile or the armadillo, and none of them really wanted the uncomfortable task of calling up the Client to enquire about the nanite swarm sealed away in steel and glass.

"Well, one of us has to do it, "said Charmy.

"Be my guest," said Espio.

Charmy immediately backed down, "No way. I don't have the guts."

Espio grunted, and soon found that the three others were looking at him. "Uh-uh, you can count me out. Ninjitsu aren't trained in dealing with mysterious Clients."

Mighty rolled his eyes, and reached for the communicator. All eyes went to him. "Well, let's face it. One of us has to volunteer. Thanks, Vector." Mighty suddenly handed the communicator to the crocodile.

Vector sputtered incomprehensibly at his drafting to use the communicator. "Why me!?"

Knuckles grew tired of the growing stupidity of the situation and suddenly growled in irritation, "The next person who gives it to someone else will get a flying fist in the mouth."

Vector took the communicator and turned it on, waiting for the response signal. He hated doing this, but he hated the idea of a Knuckles punch.

A few seconds later came the familiar beep that a response signal had been received. Everyone held their breath and listened silently.

"Sir? This is Vector from the Chaotix!"

The voice, still heavily synthesized, sounded delighted. "Vector! I assume you received the item from the Polaris Power Plant?"

Vector nearly choked on his response. "Yes...sir...about that item?"

"What is it? You sound troubled. Is it safe? Unharmed?"

"Yes, but that's now what's bothering us..." Vector sneaked a look at everyone else before continuing. "Do you know what it's made of?"

Silence. Vector had a feeling that would happen. "What do you mean 'made of'?"

Vector described the nanite schematics as best as he could and waited for a response. There was none for quite some time. When it came, it sounded different. "Is that so?" he sounded nervous.

"That's what we were told."

Again, that nervous pause. "This complicates things."

_He's being too vague_, thought Vector. "What do you want us to do?" Vector felt he had to be sensitive about this, or else they'd blow the case completely, and it was worth fifty thousand Möbiads to be worth doing that.

"Continue with this as planned. This is my problem. I had no idea that the substance was made from such a...substance. I'll have to let you in on something. It is true that this is indeed used against Dr. Robotnik, but not directly. It is an ingredient to a super-computer. I can't describe the entire details now, but it's about the old Aurora Project from Earth."

"Earth?" Vector said.

"Yes. But there's no time for a detailed explanation. You have two of the five items that I need, and time is of the essence. The next item is unfortunately in a hazardous location. Do any of you know the Fire Lake Wilderness?"

Of all of the six there, only one's eyes lit up. Knuckles had been there years ago when Chaos had smashed the Master Emerald and Knuckles had to find a few shards in that area. The area was home to Red Mountain, a small active volcano; even though it would not fully erupt, new lava flows and steam eruptions would shake up the area from time to time. It was also home to underground caverns, usually flowing with fresh lava, and the topsoil was so unstable that unfortunates would fall in and usually to their demise. Anyone who entered there would enter at their own risk.

Vector saw the sudden spark of apprehension in Knuckles' eyes and made a mental note about it. "It's near Sapphire City, isn't it?"

"Yes, but it is hazardous for two reasons. One; it is home to an active volcano. Two; Dr. Robotnik's base, the Final Egg in the Mystic Ruins, has a tributary base in the valley on the edge of the wilderness. That way it would be virtually undetectable because GUN would hardly venture out that direction because of the instability of the ground there and the risk of the volcano erupting.

"This item is being held in that tributary, codenamed Magma Fortress. It is heavily secured, but call me frequently when you get there and I can guide you through it."

Vector suddenly looked puzzled, as did the rest of the Chaotix.

"Go immediately! There's no time to waste!"

The communicator clicked off and the six members regarded each other. Things were starting to get even fishier. The nanite swarm was not-quite accounted for yet, and this Client suddenly has a strange knowledge in this next target. Plus, he remains unspecific about what items he is requesting.

"You know guys," Charmy spoke. "I find it strange that he seems to know a lot about that place."

Espio agreed. "Maybe he's a relative?"

Mighty looked up. "The only relative I can come up with is Snively."

Knuckles scoffed. "Nah, it couldn't be him, they whiny baby."

"Strangely enough, I'm having the same weird feeling about our Client. We don't have a name or even a species."

The atmosphere was tense, but it was a new tenseness then before. There was a lot of the unknown factor in this case, and despite the fact that the Chaotix loved mysteries, this particular feeling was unnerving them.

"Should we head out?" Mighty ventured.

The others slowly nodded and one by one rose from their chairs. They knew they had taken this job and it needed to be done, but they weren't sure they wanted to know what lay ahead. Julie-Su gathered up the trash from breakfast and watched the others gear up for today. There was a brief talk about bringing weapons, but the only one who really wasn't able to handle robots on his own was Charmy, and he was a small target and quick on the fly. Espio was a martial artist, Mighty could pound metal into scrap and Vector had enough muscle in his scaly body to pack a mean punch, plus his tail could deliver quite a clout.

As the six scurried around the office, Charmy noticed that the answering machine on their phone was blinking. "Hey, guys! Someone left us a message!"

All of them gathered around the desk and waited as Charmy played the recording.

"Yo, 'Tix! It's Sonic! Just droppin' in to say hi and wanted to ask you guys something."

Every ear was attentive.

"We got this email from our mutual friend Eggman daring us to stop him by the end of the week. World domination project again. Things got complicated with Mecha kidnapped Frosty, Tails' chao, and today I started thinking about the email again. Want me to send it to ya? You can catch me on my cell or the communicator in the Tornado. Ciao, ya bunch of geeks!"

"Cordial, isn't he?" Espio remarked sarcastically.

Knuckles ignored the chameleon. "Why in the world would Eggman send him an email? Now that's just strange."

"Was I the only one who heard it?" Mighty blurted out.

All the other looked inquisitively at the red-backed armadillo.

Mighty sighed. "And you guys call yourselves detectives. Not meaning you Julie or Knux."

"None taken," was the reply.

"In the email, Eggman dared them to stop him before the end of the week. When did our client want the items back?"

Everyone opened their mouths, when suddenly it sank in. "The end of the week."

"Call it a coincidence, but it's just too close."

"We'd better get going!?" Vector said, suddenly intensifying his preparations to travel.

"I think I'm going to leave you guys at your Client. Maybe I should find Sonic and ask him myself what's up. I'll keep in touch you."

"But Knuckles! We have the only portable teleporter!" Charmy said.

Knuckles smiled. "That's why I'm hunting down Sonic. Sonic learned Chaos Control years ago, and he can always heave me back when I want to, and if he doesn't we'll that's his problem."

"Sounds good to me. C'mon, guys. Let's leave these lovebirds and get going." Vector said, ducking a pair of flying fists from both the two Echidnas.

The Chaotix loaded with their supplies and portable teleporter headed out the door. Knuckles' and Julie's gaze followed them briefly, and Knuckles picked up the phone. "Let's hope Sonic's there."

A few ringing seconds later, Sonic's voice drifted through the speaker, as well as what sounded suspiciously like a plane engine. They must be in the air. "Yeah, what?"

"It's Knuckles. What's with you?"

"Boring flight. What's up?"

"I was with the Chaotix and we got your message. Where are you?"

"What?"

"Where are you?" Knuckles annunciated.

"Over Dagro Desert; we're trying to check out Eggman's base."

"The pyramid base?"

"Yeah! Why?"

"I want to talk to you more about that letter."

"Uh...okay."

"Later." Knuckles hung up without bothering to wait for Sonic's goodbye.


	7. Chapter 7: Misunderstanding

**Chapter 7: Misunderstanding**  
--

Metal-Sonic strode outside of the Launch Base near the northern Black Mountains. This base was formerly used to prepare the Death Egg for launch into space. Now it was converted into a mass-production base for aircraft. He stood upon an overhanging balcony and looked at the preparations below.

Thousands upon thousands of crimson battle drones were entering formation. They all bore a likeness of their human creator. Gold-colored drones stood in front of every regiment. Taller, leaner and more avian-like robots dotted the grounds like commanders on the battlefront. Past the battle ranks, several ships were being carted out of construction bays and even more were being constructed inside. The blue robot high above watched the ships as they were being carted out, each bearing a likeness of saltwater fish. There were some of sharks, manta rays and swordfish.

Metal-Sonic secretly despised the cosmetics of the design, but he knew that the design was essential for the plan. Who the fleet represented was not to be a secret by any means. Operation Firestorm was almost ready, and would begin by the end of the week.

Metal-Sonic strode back inside, and peered at a glowing white gem contained inside a glass bell jar. The White Chaos Emerald, one of the seven powerful Emeralds of the planet. The more the robot hedgehog looked at it, the more he desired its power...which is why he kidnapped Frosty the Chao. The chao demonstrated a potential for great power with the Chaos Emeralds, but the demonstration she was forced to show for the robot was next to fruitless as one Chaos Emerald was not enough to effectively demonstrate any exceptional power that this chao could express. More Chaos Emeralds were indeed needed.

The problem was...where to get them? Metal-Sonic knew he made a strategic error when he first kidnapped Frosty with the White Emerald. Data stated that there was at least one more Emerald within the Cyclone walker itself, and he knew it. He had stolen the Yellow Emerald himself three years before back on the space colony ARK. Metal-Sonic repressed a shudder in his frame. The ARK was a cursed place he wished never to see again.

Back on track, he knew he would have to go back to the hedgehog and the fox to steal an Emerald. The fox always kept one inside the Cyclone as a power source. The hedgehog himself has been carrying the blue one since it was found in Mystic Ruins and counted it as his personal favorite.

Metal-Sonic strode away from the White Emerald in the jar, although he found it to be a wrench to leave. He made a mental note on it later, and was secretly thrilled at the thought. For years, Metal-Sonic had been upgrading his metal body piece by piece, steering to be as close to living and as far away from robot as possible. He flexed his claws, and felt neuro-impulses pulse through underneath his bio-metal shell, which tightened in response, rising in spots and sinking in others. The data Shadow had given him on the space colony ARK was truly showing. Professor Gerald truly was a genius to come up with such a metal. Perhaps with more adjustments, he could even use Chaos Emeralds. By a master in the arts of Chaos, he was able to use the global Chaos Aura to draw the energy needed for basic powers, but for anything more advanced, a Chaos Emerald was imperative. He could now hold them without fear of instant shutdown, which was a step in the right direction.

He soon reached a computer terminal and accessed it through the Mecha-bot wireless network. "Computer, display satellite global cartograph of Möbius, Mercator projection X-axis," Mecha commanded through the network. The voice her bore was still robotic through the network, but he knew that was to be expected in an electronic network.

"Acknowledged." The computer replied then displayed a rectangular cartograph of the entire planet. Mecha was always amused at the immense distortion of the geographic landscapes as it neared the poles, but distortion of any kind is unavoidable when making a flat map from a sphere-shape.

"Computer. Uplink to satellite and scan all Möbius for Chaos Emeralds. Display coordinates of location and notify me when complete."

"Affirmative. Notice: scan may take at most twelve hours for one hundred percent completion. Advance?" The computer asked.

"Affirmative."

The computer proceeded in the global scan, and Mecha departed. The computer could do the task without supervision. He returned to the small pod containing the Chaos Emerald, and after staring at it for some time, he lifted the covering off and took the Emerald out of the containment pod. In the privacy of the control chamber, he stood staring into it; half trying to figure out how to use it and half amazed at its power.

As he looked into it, he began to feel some sort of sensation, he couldn't describe it. It almost felt as if this Chaos Emerald was trying to tell him something. Mecha almost blew this off as nonsense, but the Chaos Emeralds were so mysterious that nothing could really be certain. His trainer told him to truly use a Chaos Emerald, you have to wash away anything occupying your mind and let your feelings do the work. Metal-Sonic was still new to this body and could not grasp that concept; it wasn't like opening a port in your mind to let the energy in.

Growing more and more puzzled at the Emerald as this sudden display of "behavior" (Metal-Sonic could not come up with a better term immediately), he sat the Emerald back in its containment pod and placed the bell-jar back over the shining white gem. His bewilderment did not lessen, but it was soon joined by unanswered curiosity.

Metal-Sonic turned away, disappointed with the unanswered questions that were now just being processed through his bio-nanite processor of a brain. He checked the computer's progress and saw that it found nothing yet. Slightly annoyed he turned away.

With astonishment, he realized he had just performed an illogical emotion. He had just performed an act of impatience. He knew that the scan would not be complete until the end of the day (six hours to be precise) but he checked it anyway. Annoyance was not an illogical reaction, but it was in this case. It was a simple emotion for a complex reason...for a computer.

Could his upgrades have been more advancing then he had previously foreseen? Thinking illogically stemmed from emotions, and robots would not display any emotions unless prompted to do so by programming. He was acting like a living creature, but made up of machines. He was semi-living.

Not sure what to think of the sudden show of irrational annoyance and the thought of being able to display such emotion, he turned back outside to watch the preparations for Firestorm. Wirelessly linking to the network again, he checked the progress of Firestorm at the other bases around the world.

Good. Everything was going on schedule or ahead of schedule. Saturday morning, a remote signal would be sent to the bases, commanding the ships to lift-off. By Saturday night, the Egg Fleet would be united and nothing...not even Sonic who's on a wild goose chase after what was intended to appear to be a secret weapon.

The world will fall, and the human colonies...the invaders...would be the first to go.

- - - - -

Deep inside a dark abandoned base in the Northern Black Mountains, a human, a hedgehog and a bat sat in various pieces of furniture surrounding the only source of heat in the immediate area, a coil heater. Rouge had shivered for a while, but the shivering slowed as the heat oozed throughout her body. Shadow sat stock still as did the human, who called himself Viper. There was only one other, and he, being a robot, stood in one corner, his motor systems on idle to conserve power.

Rouge had watched Viper depart the room and come back without his weapon suit and was wearing jeans, and to her surprise a sleeveless shirt, although he wore a thick black leather jacket over it, unzipped. He wore black gloves, but there was something strange about his left arm. The glove was padded and went well past his wrist. It gave his left arm a look that it was bigger then it really was. Other then that, nothing else was really remarkable about this human except his venom-yellow eyes, which seemed to glow in the dim lighting of the room.

Viper got down to business. "I find it strange that two people and a robot would even bother to go up into this godforsaken mountain range. You'd better have a very good reason." His voice hinted like he was fiercely territorial.

This wasn't the first male he encountered that acted this way. The last one she met had a flying chunk of real estate and was a bit of a knucklehead. "Hmph, well, you're the tough guy around here, then? Why should I tell you?"

One of Viper's eyes twitched in annoyance. "I'd say you owe me one for this morning."

Rouge had no retort for this one.

"So, what's the story?"

"Oh, if I must." Rouge sighed with exaggerated annoyance. "Simply put, we're here to find a Chaos Emerald."

Rouge looked at Viper again, who was peering at Shadow as if trying to read him. Shadow was glancing back. Rouge soon got the impression that these two knew each other, or more so one knew the other and the other only felt like he met the one but forgot him. The fruit bat could guess who the one was and who the other was.

Viper looked back at Rouge. "A Chaos Emerald? I can tell you already have one; why another?"

Rouge peered at Shadow, and Viper got the hint. It wasn't for Rouge; it was for Shadow.

"And that's the only reason you three are up here? For a Chaos Emerald? That's all?"

Rouge hesitated. It would seem rather foolish to a third party to go up into one of the most inhospitable regions of the world for just one Chaos Emerald. You had to have one heck of a good reason to do so.

Omega saved her. "It is for our mission."

Viper regarded the eight-foot robot for the first time. "Mission? What mission?"

Omega saw no reason to conceal it. "To destroy Dr. Robotnik."

Viper looked the red and black robot up and down. He could tell it was of Robotnik's designs. "You're a renegade then? I didn't think robots were capable of overriding their master programming."

"I was never subdued by such programming. I was activated with the simple instruction to guard a stasis pod and for no other purpose." Omega's eyes lid up several candelas in indignation.

"What's your call-sign?"

"E-123 Omega. I am the last and most advanced E-100 series robot, the ultimate."

"E-100 series. I didn't think that series made it past E-105 Zeta."

"It has." Omega, even though his robotic features prohibited facial expressions, looked curious. "Query: how do you know E-105 Zeta."

"As someone in my profession, I usually find myself stealing data from other networks. I had seen activation instructions for the E-100 series, but only up to Zeta. Anything past that was cancelled as soon as that Robotnik saw that the series would fail...or at least, what he saw as to have failed. It's surprising to see you active, let alone still assembled."

Omega's eyes dimmed. So Dr. Robotnik had planned on destroying him even before he was even given a chance to be activated. That was two marks against Dr. Robotnik. Omega's eyes brightened in thoughtfulness at the destruction he would cause for this treachery.

"So, a Chaos Emerald for a mission against Dr. Robotnik, and this Emerald is for Shadow." Viper peered back at the moody black hedgehog. He hadn't spoken a word since he arrived. He then peered at Rouge. "You have a Chaos Emerald tracker?"

"You're quick," Rouge replied, holding up a gadget that looked like a glorified stopwatch.

Viper offered a hand, silently demanding it over for a while with his eyes. Rouge saw those eyes shimmer in the dim lighting and saw that he meant business. Handing it over with a "I want that back, dearie," she watched as Viper took it without a word, got up and strode quickly to a series of computers. He wordlessly hooked up some wires to a console and watched as the computer was processing. Rouge didn't notice the computers before, and marveled at the amount of software it must have. It dawned on the bat that this probably was not always Viper's hideout.

"What was this place?" She ventured, and half-expected not to answer.

"A seismic observatory for the human colonies, but when the earthquakes grew worse without any scientific explanation, it was abandoned. That was before I came to this planet."

"You're from Earth."

"Yes."

The computer was done processing and it showed a digitally-enhanced satellite picture of the Northern Black Mountains. The Chaos Emerald location was a green blip on the map.

"Your Chaos Emerald tracker truly is really efficient, zeroing on a Chaos Emerald within centimeters..." The human cast a dark glance at Rouge, as if accusing her of stealing this technology from someone and wanted to know who exactly. It made the bat uncomfortable. How had he known? Viper continued, "...but there is one issue that is crucial."

Rouge perked up, and Viper saw one of Shadow's ears perk his direction. Omega, although not knowing why, was also listening. He would fathom this later.

Viper press a couple of keys on the keyboard and all watch the satellite photo become a dotted wireframe. It then started to scroll to the side, showing a three-dimensional complex wireframe of the range, and Rouge noticed one crucial thing: the Chaos Emerald blip was not shown to be on the surface, but far beneath it.

"The problem is that it doesn't show whether the Emerald is on the surface or no. I had a hunch, and it was right. The Chaos Emerald is located nearly two miles beneath the surface of Mount Buio, the tallest and by far the most dangerous mountain of the range. Convenient." Viper said the last part with utmost distaste.

Disconnecting the Chaos-energy tracking device, he said "If you're going to go after it, now would be a good time to go. It is ten miles walk through the mountains, and it's hard enough without the traugans and the earthquakes."

Rouge then popped the question. "Well, then, since you know so much about this place, maybe you should be our guide." Rouge fluttered her eyes.

Viper was not impressed. "As I should, as you three wandered through there blindly, but for any favor in my field of work, there is always a price."

Rouge smiled; a human just like her. She never did favors for free either. "Oh? What's a guy like you want from us?"

"In return for helping you find a Chaos Emerald, find ME a Chaos Emerald, any color will do."

Rouge battered her eyes once. _Humans can't use Chaos Emeralds, so why want one? Maybe he just wants to sell it for a spectacular amount of profit_, she thought to herself. "Ok, handsome, you got yourself a deal."

Viper didn't move, secretly annoyed at Rouge's flirty behavior; Shadow just grunted. He didn't see why this human should have a Chaos Emerald whatsoever.

Eventually, Viper moved outside the room, and Rouge followed him, just for curiosity sake. Shadow and Omega remained in the room.

Rouge watched as Viper came to a door that looked like a warehouse gate, and thought it was a way to get outside. She was in for a surprise. Viper grasped the bottom lip of the gate and heaved it upwards violently. Noisily sliding on metal grooves, Rouge saw what the gate really contained and was blown away. It was a hall-way like room, filled with shelved, each containing large amounts of weaponry. Rouge had never seen so many firearms in one place besides museums or gun-shops.

She watched as Viper stepped into the weapons arsenal room and start buckling on various holsters, two on his thighs and one impressive on around his back, strapped to the front of his chest. It looked like it could hold two weapons at once. There were black flat knobs along the straps that went over the human's right shoulder, the holster itself and then the strap that went low underneath Viper's left shoulder.

Then, mechanically and almost reverently, he holstered various weapons into their proper holsters. He saw a silver handgun go into Viper's left-leg holster, and it was the biggest handgun Rouge ever saw, and assumed it was of the Desert Eagle family. An SMG went into the right leg holster. A shotgun and battle rifle filled the two holsters on his back. Rouge saw him pick up two-silver colored rods, one in each hand, that appeared insignificant compared to the weapons around. When Viper activated them both, amaranth-colored beams of energy swished out, and with a flick of the wrists he twirled the weapons around with a hum, and then deactivated them with another swish. Rouge was amazed. Viper had lightsabers, and those were worth hundreds of thousands on the market for their rarity, and prized among sword specialists for their ease of use. He slung these onto hooks on his belt.

Rouge thought he was armed to the teeth enough, but Viper didn't seem to be done yet. He looked at the far wall and Rouge followed his gaze. Mounted high as if they were the prizes of the weapon collection were two giant swords, each about five feet long from pommel to blade tip. One was two bladed and was stone-grey, as if it itself was made of stone; it looked almost gothic. The other was one-sided and looked "polygonic," The blade was the larger of the two swords and gleamed more in the light. One thing was true though; both looked heavy.

That didn't seemed to be an issue for the human however, as he took the double-edged one off the mount, and swung it around...with one hand. Rouge gulped; anyone who could do that with a two-handed sword was someone not to mess with. She watched as Viper swung it over his shoulder and over the hilt. As Viper took his hands off the hilt, Rouge saw that it stayed on, with no visible attachments to the holster. Then she remembered the strange knobs on the holster and straps. Could those have been magnets?

Viper stood with her back to Rouge, and seemed to savor the moment of his arming, as if was a preparation for war. Rouge decided now was a good time to leave. She was beginning to question the hiring of this human; he was clearly a weapons maniac, and no one would dare hold that against him as he could clearly show them what he was made of.

A few seconds later, Viper sensed that Rouge had left. He had a feeling that Rouge had seen him arm up and probably thought he was overdoing things, but Viper knew better. He was specially trained as an Elite Trooper, the special ops team of the Federation before he left the service to pursue the profession of a mercenary slash bounty hunter. In his line of work as an Elite or a bounty hunter, there is no such thing as overkill.

Back in the main room during the entire ordeal, Shadow watched as Rouge followed Viper a few rooms down, then looking at Omega, he got up and fished out Rouge's Violet Chaos Emerald from her bag. Sitting back in his chair, he peered into the Emerald's widest facet. He was soon growing conscious of his fur standing up on end on his arms as if charged with electricity and the tingling it made was annoying him. He willed himself to ignore it and continued to peer into the facet.

He was just looking for answers, and for some reason, he thought this Emerald would tell him. He didn't know how or why; he just tried. She was thus engaged when he saw something like a flicker deep inside the Emerald. It looked like a purple lightning bolt, striking over and over again. He peered at it closer, and unconsciously placed his other hand on the Emerald's side.

The Emerald now had a circuit. It was the battery and Shadow was the coil, and with nothing acting as a resistor, Shadow was now vulnerable to the Emerald's power. Shadow's mind would act as a resistor, but with it preoccupied, it was unable to suppress the energy. Electrical Chaos energy raced through one arm and out the other, racing constantly through the Emerald and through Shadow's body.

Shadow was not feeling the power, but was experiencing it in a whole new way. He felt as if he sank into the Emerald, and all the sudden, he was seeing things that would haunt him in nightmares.

He saw himself lying dead on the side of a mountain, pierced in two places. He saw himself racing through an open highway pursued by cops and fighter jets. He saw himself standing over the burning ruins of a city, smiling in triumph with five Chaos Emeralds encircling him. He saw himself racing across a flying battleship towards a blue monster with claws. He saw himself facing a black star-shaped thing with six arms and one eye, shimmering red. He saw himself, glowing a bright cream color, racing towards a lizard-like monster with a yellow glowing hedgehog right beside him. He saw himself fighting a white hedgehog, holding a talisman-like object with a glowing white jewel embedded in it. Last of all, he saw a human girl with yellow hair and an expression that was kind and gentle...bleeding from a gunshot wound to the chest, and he saw and heard the cadence of her last breath.

"Shadow! Report!" said a harsh, monotone voice.

Shadow came to on the floor. Surrounding him were Viper now armed to the teeth, Rouge and Omega. Rouge looked shocked and afraid; Viper's concern hardened his face into a scowl. Omega's eyes were so bright that they weren't red anymore. He must've been the shouting at him to report.

"Give him air!" Viper said, shoving Rouge and Omega back. "Shadow, what just happened!?"

Shadow started to get up, and found this his arms and chest were burning, and his fingertips felt fat and were going through neural spasms. Was he electrocuted? How? Just a second ago, he was looking at the Chaos Emerald. Next second, he was on the floor. His memory was blank and buzzing.

"I...don't know. Was I electrocuted?"

Viper didn't answer. He merely peered at Omega who hadn't left the room, expecting an answer.

"My current programming is unable to diagnose what exactly happened, Shadow. All I can report is seeing you look at the Chaos Emerald, and then you put both hands to it and you went into convulsions. I had to knock the Emerald out of your hands to make it stop."

"Convulsions...like seizures." Viper spat as if he had a bad experience with that himself. Rouge heard that and wondered if he suffered from seizures at some point of his life.

Shadow was not sitting up, rubbing his arms in an attempt to stop the hurting. "I...had seizures?" His still-buzzing brain was trying to put together clues at what happened to fill up a gap in the memory, but was failing.

"Rub your chest; your arms will take care of themselves," Viper said.

Shadow proceeded to due so, massaging his ribs. Viper watched him with puzzlement, and then his venom-yellow eyes sought out the Violet Chaos Emerald, undisturbed. A sneaky suspicion crossed his mind.

"Each Chaos Emerald has its own Master Chaos Power, but right now, I don't know which has which." He looked at both Rouge and Shadow, seeing as if they knew anything. They did not, but Rouge made a suggestion.

"There is only one person that I would think would know more about the Chaos Emeralds, and that's Knuckles the Echidna, Guardian of Angel Island."

"Right. After we pick up the Chaos Emerald underneath Mount Buio, we'll find some way of contacting him." Viper said, mildly thinking that it would be easier said then done. "We'd better get a move on. Shadow, can you walk?"

Shadow gingerly picked himself, the feelings of an electric shock wearing off, and his chest and arms have stopped cramping. "Yes."

Viper carried an apprehensive look at Shadow, but shook it off. He picked himself up from his knees, unconsciously showing that the increased weight of the weapons he now bear didn't wear him down any.

"Fine, I'll take point and lead you through a pass there. Omega, keep your scanners at full range and have your Gatling rounds at the ready. You'll be the rearguard."

"Affirmative." Omega sounded pleased.

Rouge picked up the Violet Emerald and shoved it into her pouch, but not without casting a wary look at Shadow. She leaped onto one of Omega's shoulders and grasped a bar. Shadow remained on his feet; he was a deadly force to be reckoned with by his own right.

"Let's move. I want to be there before night encloses; these mountains are bad enough in the light."

Viper strode towards the entrance, followed by Shadow, then by Omega and Rouge. Once outside, Viper pointed towards a tall broad mountain, partially shrouded by clouds. "That's Mount Buio; its insides are a labyrinth of caverns and pits."

Everyone looked at the mountain; it looked like a mound of barren black rock, and it looked particularly evil. Partially shrouded in the clouds reinforced that thought. For Shadow however, it was something deeper; he had seen that mountain before...and for some reason; he hated the very sight of it.

- - - - -

"Where do you think these go?"

"I'm not sure; should we follow them, Amy?"

Amy and Cream were just voicing their thoughts about a line of train tracks that were traversing their path. Big didn't see anything special about them, so didn't speak up.

"It's really odd to see train tracks way out here in a jungle. Sounds really suspicious to me." Amy took a look at the tracks deeper. The rails themselves were shining in the sunlight, and there was little vegetation growing in the immediate area inside or outside the track. "Trains must still be coming through here too. Let's find out where these go!"

"But which way should we go?"

Amy stood still, thinking, casting a glance in either direction where the tracks led. If they picked the wrong direction, they could be going down this track for days. They could be doing that going the right way as well, but from right where they stood, it was impossible to know from where they stood right now...or was it?

If only they could get their sense of direction, they could have an idea. They weren't too far from the coast; it was very well known that the Mystic Ruins jungles rimmed the coast up to the foothills of the Mystic Blue Mountains, which stood as a dividing line between the Mystic Ruins and Sapphire City.

Looking around, she looked at the trees and mushrooms all around, then at the moss growing on the sides of the trees. Summoning all her education in high school biology, she recalled that moss grew on the north side of the trees away from the sun's rays in the northern hemisphere. The problem was that in the jungles, sunlight rarely reached the ground so moss could really grow whatever, but in this clearing with the train tracks, sunlight could get through.

She looked at her watch and saw it was sometime after ten. The sun should still be in the eastern sky, but the trees were obscuring where it was.

"Cream, can you do me a big favor?"

"Yeah!" Cream replied.

"Can you fly up and see where the sun is?"

"Ok!" Cream was too young to understand what significance of this request, or even think about how off it really sounded, so she just did as she was told like a good little girl Aunt Sally told her to be. Flapping her droopy ears like wings, she rose off the ground. Thanks to her Chaos Aura, although she did not know this, she was gifted with the power of flight, much like Tails was. Cheese followed her up, ever the faithful chao of her mistress.

Cream had to fly over one-hundred feet to get above the treetops, but once she cleared the forest canopy, she shielded her eyes and looked towards the sun, but not at it, for it hurt her eyes.

She drifted back downwards to where Amy and Big were waiting, but failed to account for any amount of wind that could've knocked her off course. Thankfully, the wind wasn't too strong to push her far so she landed twenty-five feet away from where she had lifted off. She was still along the tracks and could see Amy and Big (the latter more so), so she ran towards them, Cheese flying behind.

"The sun is that way!" Cream said, pointing towards the left side and some behind her where she ran.

"Ok, then let's go that way!" Amy said, pointing the other direction.

"Why?" Cream asked. Amy seemed suddenly very sure.

"Because if the sun is that way..." Amy pointed to where Cream had pointed before. "...that was is east. I have a feeling that these tracks lead somewhere important along the coast, which is west. That way..." Amy pointed the way she herself had pointed after deciding which way to go. "...is west, and where the coast is. Let's follow the tracks that way!"

"Okay!" Cream and Cheese said in unison.

"Okie-dokie," Big said.

The team headed west, careful to follow the tracks, and listening for trains. It was not safe to be near train tracks when a train was about to bulldoze through.

They had not been walking long when some distance ahead, there was a flash of light. All stopped to watch as someone materialized out of the flash. Soon afterwards, there were three more flashes in succession, and each one dropped off another person, much different looking then the last. A fifth flash happened that dropped a plate-like object. The result now showed a bee, a hot-pink chameleon, a tall crocodile and a red-backed armadillo were now standing on the tracks. They seemed to be talking to each other

"Who are those guys?" Amy thought aloud.

"I don't know," Big said. "Should we ask?"

"Maybe we should," began Cream. "Perhaps they know where these tracks go."

"Okay then, we'll ask them."

- - - - -

The Chaotix had beamed onto the railway in the jungle and were looking around. Espio spoke first. "This isn't where we're supposed to be."

"I didn't want us to beam too close to the base," Mighty said. Since the base is on the edge of a mountain range and if we tried to teleport too close there, we'd end up either on top of the base or on the side of a cliff."

"Thanks for the consideration," muttered Vector.

"Guys, we're not alone," Charmy said. "Look!"

All looked to see a pink hedgehog in a red dress and boots, a floppy-eared rabbit, a blue chao and a morbidly obese purple-furred cat were walking towards them.

"Who are they?" Vector said.

"No idea," Espio said. "But those smaller two are just girls. I doubt they pose any threat, or mean any."

"We should ask to see what they're doing here. This seems a bit out of the way for two girls and a fat cat to be just strolling," Mighty said.

"Ok, ok, we'll ask," Vector sighed, and prepared for the three strangers' approach.

When they got close enough, Vector spoke right away. "Excuse me, missy. Is it all right with you if I ask you something?"

The pink hedgehog, Amy, looked affronted. _Missy!?_ Her reaction soon dictated the comedy to follow. "If it's about a date, it'll have to wait..."

"Date!?" Vector cried out, temper flaring despite his reptilian nature. "You think this is a joke, you little brat!"

"It's not nice to call people names!" the rabbit, Cream, shouted back, arms at her hips and ears laid back in anger. Cheese, her chao, mimicked her.

"What kind of people call any question an offer to date?" Mighty said back.

"It's not nice to tease my friends!" Big's ears laid back.

"This is all a big misunderstanding!" Espio said, seeing that the situation was quickly accelerating out of control.

"You betcha it is! Do I look like a brat to you, mister!?" Amy's spines were bristling as if electricity were pouring through them.

"Well, you're acting like one!" Charmy retorted.

Wrong answer! Amy yelled in rage and whipped out the biggest hammer the Chaotix had ever seen and Vector was on the wrong end of it as it slammed down on his head. The rest moved in to intervene, but Cream, Big and Cheese joined the slugfest. Charmy was overwhelmed by the chao, who dashed into his face like a dragonfly.

Mighty was soon wrestling Big who was winning by his bulk. Espio was given a knock over the head like Vector, but was quick to get away from a second one. Mighty somersaulted from under Big, who fell onto his belly with a smack, just as Charmy was finally able to get Cheese off of his face and shoved him away, causing the chao to spiral into the air.

Espio was tackled from the side by Cream, but thanks to his ninja skills was able to get her off. Mighty was Amy's next target, but Mighty had the advantage. He caught the hammer's head and shoved it back, which caused Amy to stumble backwards into Big, who wasn't affected thanks to his own bulk.

The fight continued unabated for a few more minutes, until both teams grew too tired to fight any more and backed away from each other, panting hard and glaring poisonous looks at the other. Their energy was spent, but their tempers were not.

"What...is your problem!?" Amy gasped, her hair strewn in all directions and covered from dirt head to toe.

Vector was rubbing his head where a lovely knot was developing on the top of his skull. "What makes you bash people in the head!?"

"We were just trying to ask what you were doing wondering a jungle! Is that a problem!?" Charmy panted, rubbing a place where Cheese had bitten him.

Amy's eyes widened. "That's ALL!? That's what we were going to ask you!"

"What!?" Mighty blurted out.

It dawned on them that the fight was for nothing at all, over one big misunderstanding gone horribly wrong. All of them felt their frustrations being replaced by complete embarrassment.

"I don't get to say it much," Espio started. "...but I told you so."

"Shut up," was the universal response.

Amy had to swallow before talking again. "I'm sorry about fighting! Can you forgive us?"

Cream stood besides Amy. "Please?"

Big was gingerly rubbing his arm where he received the business end of Charmy, so to speak; it would smart for quite a while. "I'm sorry too..."

"Apology accepted," Espio said.

"Yeah, I'm sorry for all this mess too." Charmy looked incredibly sheepish.

"Now that's all done, let's get out of here, guys," Vector said. He wanted to pretend this never happened.

In silent agreement, the Chaotix started down the railroad.

"Wait!" Amy called out to them. "We're going that way too! We'll go with you!"

"No!" Vector quickly blurted out. "We're going to a dangerous place that only professionals like us can deal with it."

"Is it a base of Dr. Eggman's?" Amy said, fishing for a response.

Charmy blanched. "How did you--" then instantly clapped hands on his mouth, but it was too late.

"So you are!" Cream said. "We'll go with you to rescue Mr. Big's friend!"

"Froggy!" was Big's reply.

"No! We won't have some kids following us around getting us and you killed!" Vector said, his temper rising.

Amy bristled, and made a noise like a high-pitched moan, but much more forceful and through bared teeth. The hand holding the hammer twitched spasmodically.

"But we have to rescue Froggy!" Cream pleaded, not at all minding being called a kid. After all, she was only ten. "Please, Mr. Big misses him terribly. We have to get him back!"

Vector was not at all perturbed. "If you want to go and get yourself captured or worse, that's your problem! We have business to take care of! C'mon, Chaotix, let's go!"

Vector was not at all sorry for leaving the strangers behind, but did feel a twinge of pity for yelling at them. Forcing it down, he marched down followed by the others. They had a job and they couldn't have any random yokels giving them the trouble of day.

Back behind, Amy was still seething. "Oh, that guy! What kind of big shot does he think he is!?"

"I think he just doesn't want us to get hurt..." Cream said quietly. "What are we going to do?"

"Well, I'm not going to let some gator with an ego tell ME what to do! We're going after them and find Eggman's base! There we can find Froggy!"

"Ok!" Cream, Cheese and Big cheered.

Amy marched ahead, fixed in her intentions and irritation of being called a kid.


End file.
